Who Walks Among Dragons
by Uncommon Guru
Summary: He called to them from obscurity, and they replied like thunder. Both proved worthy of the others pride, and dreams. Now Naruto will grapple with a power none else had survived, and prove how his brand of unpredictability can change anyone.
1. Chapter 1

Hi everyone! Uncommon Guru here to give you a quick explanation for this story. The reason is simple; because I wanted to...hehehe.

In all seriousness, I _was_ planning on continuing Desert Assassin, but found that unlike Word of Honor, my notes weren't there anymore. After looking for a bit, I found some of the outline for this story, and figured I'd write some of it to keep Word of Honor fresh and help keep me from being distracted. At least, until I read something I did _not_ know about Inari's appearance; those who guess it will get prizes.

After I found that tidbit of information, it was hook, line, sinker, then gun show.

This story was loosely based off of Most Heinous of Crimes by _Andrew D. Talon_, as well as All Black by _Evilsheeplordthatsaysmoo_...who was inspired by the first story. Strange how that happens isn't it? ANYWAYS, I've seen Naruto get summons like this before, but I wanted to give a take that was unique and my own. Those who've read Word of Honor...you have an idea what you're in for.

To keep this simple, we're starting after the Wave Mission, because...well, it's where All Black started, and I'd decided that worked out well, so here we go!

For newbies and old friends alike, let's get on with the show!

* * *

**Who Walks Among Dragons**

_He called them from obscurity. Looking into their eyes, he caused even them to bow. Now Naruto will grapple with a power none else had survived._

* * *

**Chapter 1**

"…we have several missions for you today. There's always someone who needs us to help walk their dogs, some civilians have hired us to paint their fences, oh! and Tora needs to be caught a – "

"GAH! All of these are _boring_. Kakashi-sensei, aren't there any more kickass C-ranks?"

"Naruto! Show some respect!"

Naruto huffed softly, turning his head from Iruka as he muttered grumpily. "The last C-rank mission we took was awesome. Why can't we just take another?"

The date – in Naruto's mind – was one week after their return from the most epic mission of all time to Nami no Kuni (Land of Waves). In that time, he'd fought against an A-ranked shinobi, learned how to walk up trees, and became an awesome hero to everyone there. Then, after getting a couple days leave, they'd gotten back to the grindstone and had _D-ranked_ missions. After all that, they simply couldn't compare to what they'd experienced.

To all who heard him complaining, it was another thing altogether; he hadn't really learned some of the overarching lessons 'underneath' that he could've learned. He was still on that adrenaline high some shinobi experienced after their first mission with enemies outside their league. It was a dangerous, often detrimental trait a shinobi could have, and no one there was going to let him go until they were sure that he'd come off the high enough to be considered rational…or as rational as Uzumaki Naruto could possibly get.

Next to him, his teammates appeared to be taking his moaning differently than normal. Although the circumstances behind their last mission were far from normal, the turnaround for the other two was substantially more than their teammate.

Sakura fidgeted more then she used to, biting her lip and looking nervously towards those giving the missions. Her more firm standing was shaken, and it was further evident in the way she no longer lashed out at the blonde with ease and vigor. It was also probable that her other teammate might've been a reason for that though.

Beside both of them, Sasuke was calm, collected, and inwardly wanting to throw back his head and groan loudly. It wouldn't be obvious to the casual observer, as he had proven himself time and again as someone who was quite capable of masking many of his emotions clearly with a calm that even some chunin envied. However, to keen eyes, he had a twitch in his eyes when Naruto would be turned down from his requests for higher ranked missions. He wanted them as much as his counterpart, but knew he didn't have to do anything but sit back and watch as Naruto made a fool of himself until someone listened or crumpled. It was evident that the danger had brought back some memories he'd pushed back, and they were making him feel on edge, excited, and dangerous.

All crippling attributes of those who harbored frail egos.

But enough about egos, the Hokage was speaking.

"True, however, there are other tasks within the village that take precedence of 'awesome' Naruto." The Hokage said with a sigh, tenting his fingers as he glanced over the papers in front of him as he spoke. "One cannot continually leave the village and expect the civilians to recognize them as their future defenders."

"But how will the world know the future Hokage if I don't get recognized?" Naruto asked, putting his hands behind his head. Scoffing, he shook his head. "The people in Nami recognized me, and I even got to see them build a super bridge!"

For Iruka, this was yet another reason to pinch the bridge of his nose to push back his headache. How was Naruto supposed to get the respect of _Konoha's_ villagers if he didn't help out and was always away? The boy didn't really think everything through in his grand scheme of 'becoming Hokage'. Then again, this _is_ the kid who thought he should become Hokage after stunning him for a moment with his Oiroke no Jutsu (Sexy Technique).

As the Hokage glanced over some of the other missions, he spied one that hadn't quite gotten taken care of. Pulling it out, he mulled it over for a moment. It was slightly better pay then the average D-ranked, which would be a plus in many ways. It could also be done in a day or less if handled right. To top it all off though, was two things that made it stand out; it was C-ranked, but was still considered 'inside' the village's boundaries.

"Kakashi-san." The Hokage said with a firm voice. "Do you think your team is capable of handling another mission?"

Kakashi blinked, humming in thought with a fist under his chin. "Well…I suppose they might. Then again, the only one who _wants_ a mission like that sounds like Naruto, don't you think?"

"WHAT?!" Naruto shouted, whipping from Kakashi to his team. "You-you don't mean that! They want a mission like that just as much as I do! Don't you guys?"

Sakura hummed, somewhat worried as she thought it over. They couldn't possibly have _two_ missions like that back to back. Kami had to have _some_ leeway in their lives right?

Speaking as their current Kami in this matter; not unless there is plot involved.

Sasuke on the other hand, was a bit more vocal. "You didn't answer his question Kakashi-sensei."

It was roundabout, and honestly Kakashi _could_ have played with his words as being a rejection. However, he could clearly see what he was intending, so he shrugged to the Hokage. "I guess another mission couldn't hurt."

"YES! Yahoo! Alright, _now_ we're talking!" Naruto shouted, jumping up in the air with surprising amount of height for someone his size as he clicked his heels together in joy.

Before Iruka could attempt to embarrass himself, the Hokage slid the page in front of him. Picking up the page and looking it over with worry in his eyes, Iruka assessed the mission they were being given. After several moments, his look slowly softened as the parameters of the mission made him realize what this mission really was. Sighing softly, he passed it to Kakashi, who chuckled when he saw the details involved.

Behind him, Sasuke's body language read apprehensive, but quickly becoming one of one who was frustrated. Unlike the less attentive Naruto, Sasuke had watched the small transaction between the Hokage and Iruka, and it wasn't something that looked like it'd be the challenge he was expecting.

Naruto, for his part, was still oblivious. "So, who are we protecting Kakashi-sensei? Are we beating up villains to keep a boat maker safe? Or how about a carpenter who's going to make a statue? Ooh! Are we finally getting a mission to protect a princess? Come on Kakashi-sense, what are we doing?!"

* * *

"OH COME ON!"

"Mah, Naruto, there's no need to yell."

"Our mission is to walk over graves as we destroy their former homes. _Excuse me_ for being a bit paranoid!"

Sakura rolled her eyes at Naruto's statement. "Oh come on, it's nothing like that. The graves were already moved, we're just knocking down the interior of the houses so they can be quickly cleared so that Konoha can expand a bit. Why are you freaking out?"

"Because the ghosts might still be there!" Naruto whined, shivering at the thought. "You can't stab a ghost, you can't hit it, and you can't _kill_ it. Why wouldn't you be scared?"

"Because I can breathe fire and make it run away." Sasuke said nonchalantly.

Naruto turned and glared at the Uchiha sourly, almost forgetting that little fact. He didn't actually know if ghosts were scared of fire, but then, there wasn't a whole lot about ghosts in the first place. The thought made him shiver. Now _there_ was a ninja trait; being able to inspire fear, and yet leave no earthly remains as to who or _what_ you were.

Still, they had their mission to complete, and ghosts or not it was their job to carry it out. To make it a bit more challenging, Kakashi was holding onto the sledgehammers that the demolition team had lent them, and had told them he wanted them to punch through the boards with their fists. When they got through an hour of it, he'd let them use the hammers. They would use them till they felt the need for a break, would get a short break followed by more punching and hammering. Effective taijutsu training, as well as heavy weapons training in its own way too.

Kakashi felt quite pleased with himself when he'd finished thinking of it.

Placing a hand on their shoulders, he gave them a gentle nudge towards the buildings. "Well, go on then. We're only here until tonight, and we don't get to take any other missions till this is done. So, hop to it."

Somehow Naruto felt that there was an unusual amount of cheerfulness in Kakashi's voice…like he was happy that he'd likely get a day or two without other missions. What he didn't quite put together was that with no other missions till this one's completion, Kakashi wouldn't have to hear him complain and could read his book in silence. And with the restrictions, likely take slightly longer than normal for a chunin team to handle.

Yes, he was quite pleased with himself.

Grumbling, and displeased, Naruto finally slapped his face and focused. "Ossu! This is totally my thing. I'm gonna knock down all these houses faster than you Sasuke!"

Sasuke stared at him with his usual flat look. "Did you forget I can make fireballs?"

Naruto blinked, growling again. Then, he grinned and pointed to himself. "I can make tons of copies of myself! Ha! Beat that!"

"Okay. I know one thousand jutsu, as well as various techniques in which to subdue you, as well as to sense chakra." Kakashi interjected, his eye curling up into a smile. "Remember, no jutsu from either of you."

Realizing that this evened the playing field, the two slowly looked at each other. As though they were in silent agreement, they turned and raced towards two separate buildings and quickly ran inside. Once again, Kakashi chuckled. It was good to be the man in charge.

* * *

Naruto muttered curses under his breath as his fist easily ran through the drywall. This mission was beneath him, hell it was beneath _Sasuke_, and yet here they were cleaning out houses in preparation for them to be knocked down. Civilians did this as their job, but someone had thought that they should hire a team of trained shinobi to do it for them? Someone must've been having an off day when they thought up that idea. Either that or they were being lazy and didn't want to waste the energy to do anything.

Growling, he pulled his fist back and punched the wall, only to flinch as a spike of pain shot down his arm and down his back. From the sound of it, he'd cracked _something_ and judging from the pain it could very well have been his hand. Taking a slow deep breath, he kept himself remarkably controlled. When he removed his hand from the wall though, the pain seemed to escalate and his inner childishness won out.

"YEOWCH!"

"Mah, don't forget to punch _through_ the board Naruto." Kakashi's voice floated into the house from outside. "There are some supports in the wall that could break your hand if you aren't careful."

Naruto, not without his own witty sarcastic retort, shouted over his shoulder. "Thank you sensei!"

"You're welcome!"

Naruto grumbled again, gently rubbing his knuckles. They were getting plenty of abuse as he did this exercise, and from the small amount of blood coming from them they weren't taking too kindly to it either. Sighing, he gripped some more of the plaster and pulled it away with a sharp tug. Throwing more of it into the center of the room, he contemplated what all had happened since their return from Nami no Kuni.

Really, nothing seemed different about the village in his eyes after the experience abroad; granted, he was working with a slate that had so much written on it that you couldn't guess where it began or ended, but that was beside the point. The looks he'd gotten in passing were the same, and it continued to feel cold whenever he'd walk down the streets. After being in the middle of a death trap of ice mirrors, that was saying quite a bit about how it felt.

Or maybe it was a bad comparison. The ice felt _physically_ cold, but the village felt…different. A cold that made his skin crawl in the heat of summer, and his heartbeat would thump in his ears as the cold grip on it tightened.

On the other hand, he had money! It was just a bit more then he was used to, but more then what he'd been getting before that point. There were so many possibilities he could work with now, like foods, and clothes, and –

Oh who was he kidding? With the way he did things, he needed to save that money for later. Things like that could wait.

As he thought, his body worked on autopilot. Get into a stance, punch, pull, throw, slide, adjust, and then repeat. Not having met too many of the boards, he figured that there weren't too many. Just to be safe though, he punched as though he was punching through Sasuke's ego and finally getting Sakura to notice him; farsighted motivation, but motivation nonetheless.

So lost in thought, he almost missed the flash of gold his wall-ripping had unveiled before he punched. As luck would have it, the sunlight caught it in a way that caused it twinkle just enough to make Naruto pause. Curious, and having his ADOS (Attention Deficit – Oh Shiny!) acting up, he slowly approached it, peaking behind the wall curiously. Not able to get a good look, he dug his heels in and yanked on the drywall. Having weakened it around this point, he was able to easily rip a large chunk off to give him a far better view of what was hidden behind it. Seeing a piece of board fall to his feet, he reached up to pull the rest of it off to unveil the fullness of his newfound secret.

There, hidden in the wall of the house, was a scroll. It was only slightly larger than the storage scrolls he rarely saw, and was at least twice as thick. Yet, it was bound in some kind of gold-tinted paper that made him think it was something important, and should be respected. Slowly picking it up, he turned it over in his hands. On the band that held the scroll together, faint, near illegible words were written on it. It actually took him several minutes to decipher it.

__ Summoning Co_act._

Naruto blinked, scratching his head at that. That was something he swore he'd heard before, but couldn't quite place. Sighing, he put it into the pouch that hung from the back of his belt and refocused on his work. He had drywall to bring down, and he would be damned if Sasuke knocked more down then him.

Despite his enthusiasm and zeal, Naruto's mind kept going back to those words. Summoning Contract. It sounded simple, but something about the implication behind it made him feel it was something _he_ should remember. After all, he only remembered the cool stuff that Iruka taught in class. Most of it anyways. Only some of the time though. And only if he was having a really good day.

Like this day.

As Naruto struck through another wall, his mind finally began trailing off to the side as it remembered a lesson that Iruka had taught about some of the greatest shinobi's of all time. He talked about how the Hokage, and his students nicknamed the Sannin, were some of the best examples of a group of shinobi with a skill set no one could copy due to a simple fact; they were the holders of summoning contracts.

That lesson stuck out a bit in Naruto's mind, because he'd asked if anyone could get these 'contracts' and had been told that they were so secret that many didn't even get passed down in clans from one to the next. The reason behind this was not because of any lack between family, but because the child often didn't show a similar respect for the summons as the parent due to preconceived notions. Granted, there _were_ some that _were_ passed from one generation to the next, but that generally stayed in clans. Many of the _other_ contracts tended to trade hands from teacher to student, and so on.

And now, he had one in his back pocket.

Naruto's first thought was to let out a loud cheer and rush out to show off his find. He could _so_ rub this in Sasuke's face and show how awesome he was. With super summons on his side, Sakura would fawn over him and the Hokage would give up on being Hokage to let Naruto take over. It would be epic!

Turning on his heels, he darted over to the window and all but shoved his head out the window. "Hey Kakashi-sensei! I found something!"

Kakashi glanced up from his book, blinking up at his student with an intrigued, if humoring, look. "Oh? What did you find?"

Naruto's mouth opened, ready to spill it out, but he paused when he saw Sasuke poke his head out. Apparently he'd gotten his attention, and he was curious about what he'd possibly found.

And then reality gripped him just seconds before he said anything. He had a scroll. A _secret jutsu scroll_ that no one else knew about seeing as no one else _could_ know about something like this. The jutsu that summons taught were pretty exclusive to their summoners, meaning that if he got them on his side, he could learn those super awesome jutsu that he always wanted.

But only if he kept quiet.

The last time he had his hands on a secret scroll, he only had three hours with it, and learned one jutsu. One jutsu that had quickly become his bread and butter, but it was still just one. If he had more time to look over the scroll, surely he could learn more jutsu, and with an increased arsenal…what couldn't he do?

Glancing away and looking sheepish, his mind raced. 'Think, think, what would Kakashi-sensei buy?' Looking back at Kakashi, his eyes caught sight of the book in his hands. 'Perfect!'

"Well, it's kinda…I think it might be a dirty magazine. It looked like a scroll but inside there were…pictures." Naruto said, idly thinking of the ones he and Konohamaru had used when researching for the Oiroke no Jutsu. Ah good times.

"Naruto-baka!" Sakura shouted, her face blushing when she thought of what he could mean. "What-what are you talking about?" Slowly, she picked up some loose shrapnel from her own home destruction as ammo.

"Uh…" Naruto stammered, having forgotten in the heat of the moment that Sakura, his _female_ teammate, would also overhear everything. It was one step forward, a slip and a tumble down the hill of friendship he was headed at this rate.

Kakashi in the meantime blinked, contemplating what to do. On one hand, that book shouldn't have been in the house as they were cleared out. Then again, people did crazy things to hide their goods, so someone like Naruto finding it wasn't out of the question when tearing a place down. Humming softly and ignoring the shouts of pain as Sakura bombarded Naruto with surprising accuracy from one house to the next with her improvised assault. Hm, he'd have to look into that later too now that he thought about it, might end up being a useful skill.

"Mah, Naruto." Kakashi called out. Hearing only shouts of pain and swearing, he sighed and turned to Sakura. "Sakura?"

Sakura paused mid throw, almost falling over in the process. "Y-yes Kakashi-sensei?"

"Can you wait till later? Naruto and I were having a conversation."

Sakura blinked, slowly nodding. If there was anyone who could help curb Naruto's habits, surely Kakashi would be able to. And now would be a good time to do it seeing how Naruto had plainly stated what he'd found. It was rather a shame that she forgotten about the book that Kakashi plainly carried around…which tends to happen when you become desensitized to the sight of it.

"Naruto? You dead yet?"

"…no…" Naruto's voice slowly drawled out. Kakashi chuckled. Sounded like he'd been hit in the chest more often than the head; which was good considering how many brain cells he'd need for later.

"Well then, feel free to keep your book." Kakashi was almost surprised when Naruto's head rapidly returned to the window, but then he'd never had a whole lot of things that were 'his' either. "Consider it 'finders keepers', eh? I mean, it's not like it's going to hurt you to look through. Who knows? Maybe I'll lend you my Icha Icha Paradise someday."

Naruto blinked, Sakura turned red, and Sasuke…well he returned to his job once he'd gotten bored. For Naruto though, he wasn't sure what to think. Technically he had just been stretching the truth by saying he'd seen anything inside the scroll, but to think that Kakashi would not only allow him to take it home without inspection, but to _keep it_…Naruto's grin couldn't be stopped as he giggled quite loudly. "Thanks Kakashi-sensei!"

Kakashi blinked, unsure about Naruto's sudden enthusiasm. One moment he was grumbling about how he picked bad missions and now he was letting out a shout of how awesome his sensei was and how he was 'totally buying him ramen' and…wow he suddenly had a high opinion of him. He liked this arrangement. Hm, maybe he should got a step further and just get him his _own_ copy of the book to keep. Yes that might work. Then he would be in the pantheon of his students mind. It was only a matter of time before the other two realized his greatness.

Greatness that unfortunately…

TWACK. "YEOWCH!"

"Punch through it Naruto, punch through it."

Yeah. He still had a _lot_ of work to do with 'em.

* * *

It was near sundown when they finally separated and went back to their homes. They all had a slight haggard look to them, physical labor beating from beating down the walls of over a dozen homes having caught up with them. Admittedly they did better than Kakashi had expected, but then they still had a dozen they would need to finish up with tomorrow, so he simply waved happily as he watched them go with a small reminder.

Sakura had been the only one to outwardly show a great deal of frustration with this mission, moaning and swaying as she left after that. Sasuke, ever the stoic one, merely grunted and walked off. If one looked closely though, his arms were shaking, and there was a clear sheen of perspiration on his brow. Naruto looked a bit worn, but was stretching out and getting ready for round two. With a skip in his step, and a very happy goodbye, Kakashi couldn't help but smile at Naruto's infectious nature. He was a good kid…when he wanted to be. And now he was on his good list.

Heaven help those who crossed him; he now had a prankster he could and quite possibly would sick on them.

Unaware of the possible pranking war Kakashi might've thought of unleashing, Naruto raced happily towards his house. The weight of the scroll in his back pouch had felt heavier than the hammer, and it'd been more painful containing his excitement than punching through the wall. Then again, the wall was a great way to distract himself seeing how it was really quite painful. He could feel himself getting stronger already.

This mission was getting better and better.

Pausing on a rooftop as he roof-hopped to his home, he scowled at the sky as he saw the approaching thunderclouds. While not known for having much rain, what with the high concentration of heat from Katon Jutsu (Fire Release Techniques) in Hi no Kuni (the Land of Fire), that same heat meant that sometimes mother nature wanted to complain and sent a thunderstorm; no rain, just lightning and thunder. It wasn't optimal, seeing how often his power went out during said thunderstorms. Sometimes he swore that his landlord was doing it on purpose, but that would be just silly wouldn't it? It wasn't like he'd ever pranked his own apartment complex before, and he hadn't done anything to the man.

Well, nothing personally.

Shaking his head and slapping his cheeks, he sighed softly. "Get it together Naruto. Today is the makings of greatness! Alright, let's go!"

Leaping with increased vigor, he all but flung open his door and slammed it behind him upon arriving. Fumbling in excitement, he pulled off his pack and placed it in front of himself. With a gentleness that would be considered surprising for someone who was acting near crazed a second ago, he pulled out the scroll and set it in front of himself. Taking a deep breath, he slowly undid the seal on it and began to unroll it.

Almost immediately, it was jackpot. Hand seals were drawn quite clearly in sequential order, allowing him access to a jutsu with more than one hand seal needed for it. While that meant he'd actually need to practice his hand seal speed and usage in battle, with his signature Kage Bunshin (Shadow Clones) backing him up, he could more then pull it off. Giddy to see what other things the scroll had, he pushed it open further only to pause.

The next segment was a thin square, followed by a much larger square. In the first one was red, smudged writing that looked like someone might've tried writing something in it. The other one was five red dots, similar to fingerprints. Shrugging, and not seeing how this pertained to jutsu, he pushed it further open.

And futher.

And futher.

And futher. Only to find that each point after the initial hand seals, there was nothing but filled in boxes with red writing and dots.

Sitting back, he pouted and scoffed at the scroll. "Aw man, this sucks! What kind of useless scroll is th – "

KRACK-BOOM

Naruto leapt from his seated position with a yelp as the thunder crack startled him. His feet flailed out, and he landed back on his rump with a thud. Groaning, he glanced out to the storm and scowled. Stupid storm, ruining his angry monologue. Now he didn't remember where he was at!

Turning back to the scroll, his anger slowly died down as he discovered that, in his surprise, it had been rolled open even further. Glancing at his feet, he figured a foot had probably bumped into it and sent it rolling further than before. Standing up, he stared down at the scroll, he went to go get the end when he noticed something. Standing over it, and able to see more than one box at a time, his eyes were able to see something he'd missed before.

The thin boxes did have names in them, and half of each box was the same.

Kneeling back down, he inspected each one closely. Going from one, then to another, then back again, he started making out similar kanji that would make up a name. The writing had faded away quite a bit, meaning it had been done a long time ago, but it was close enough that he could make out basic shapes without needing to be all that smart.

Slowly following the scroll, he saw the pattern continue. Name, dots, name, dots, and it continued down the scroll till he got to the scroll itself. Blinking, he noticed that it had a ways to go before it reached the end, so how far did this family manage to get before they'd had to stop. Shrugging, he pulled the paper and let it roll out the last bit and then inspected it.

To his shock, he was in luck. One solitary space had been left open, one set of thin box next to wide box. It was like it was just waiting for someone like him to come along and fill it. And he was more than willing to fill that position.

The only problem? How was he going to do that?

He scratched his head, glancing back to all the names. They were all in red, so that meant that red ink of some kind was something that was needed. With his low salary, low desire to interact with people who sold things like ink, a need to get this done _now_, it was unlikely that he'd go out and get some. He didn't even have any before anyways. Luckily, Naruto was quick on his feet, and was able to improvise – ironically doing the correct thing in the process – an alternative method.

Biting down on his right thumb, he quickly leaned over and filled in the scroll with his name. Feeling proud of himself, he glanced at the big box and then to his hand. With a shrug, he poked his bleeding thumb onto each finger and then put the five dots down like the others all appeared to have. Nodding to himself in great satisfaction, he mentally patted himself on the back for his quick thinking. Walking over to the beginning of the scroll to pick it up, he paused as he stood over it, glancing between his name and the hand seals.

Slowly, the cogs in his brain made a connection.

"Wait…Iruka-sensei said that it was a contract…and that people could summon animals to help them. So, by signing this contract…and being the last name on it…"

Ding.

"HA! Take THAT Sasuke-teme, I have something you CAN'T have because I'm the last one! YAHO – "

Another crack of thunder silenced him with another yelp as he saw the sky illuminated by the thunder. Scowling at the weather, he returned his attention to the scroll. He had work to do after all.

Slowly going over the hand seals, and making sure he got everything right, he slowly nodded to himself. He was going to do it, it was now or never and he didn't have the time for never.

"Kuchiyose no Jutsu (Summoning Technique)!"

A plume of smoke enveloped him, causing him to cough lightly as he waited for his epic fighting animal of awesomeness to reveal itself. He'd put enough chakra to summon at least a dozen shadow clones, so it _had_ to be something great!

To his shock, and slight dismay, what appeared wasn't what he expected. There, seated in front of him, was a statue.

Naruto moaned, falling onto his back and flailing. "Kami-sama why do you hate me?! What did I do to make you want to do this to me? No _wonder_ there were so many names in it but no one's heard of it. Who wants to summon a statue?"

Pushing himself back up, he scowled, leaning close to the statue in question. Upon closer investigation, it was actually really well made. The metal was crafted with sharp cuts that drew light in and prevented it from reflecting it. Carved into it, he could almost see a sense of liveliness to the pose of it, like it was drawing back to stare forward with a look of rage…or terror, he couldn't quite tell. Picking it up, he turned it over in his hands as his mind began to remember what the statue looked like.

It looked like one of the creatures he'd sometimes see in parades; when a group of people would dress as a dragon.

"To bad _you_ aren't a dragon. That could've been really cool, you know?" Chuckling softly, he flicked the statue's nose. With a sigh, he set the statue down and headed into the kitchen. There was no point in holding onto it for now, and all this thinking and work had made him hungry. Plus, with his wounded pride, he needed some ramen to fill the void.

As he left the room, traces of blue began to filter over the steel where he'd flicked the statue. From where his hands had held it, the blue spread as well. Like a fire that encompassed it, the little statue soon began shaking and rattling as cracks began to form from within the steel.

Finally ready to eat his ramen, he clapped his hands together as he boisterously shouted. "Itadakimasu!"

CRACK!

Pausing before digging in, he froze at the new sound. Unlike thunder, it had been a single cracking noise, with no accompanying boom. Worse still, it had come from his room. Slowly, hesitantly, he pushed himself back and made his way back to the room. Reaching into his kunai holster, he silently grunted when he realized his pouch was in the room too. He'd have to improvise until he got it then. Peaking around the corner, he kept his breathing slow, his eyes darting around to try to see who it was.

"I LIVE!"

Naruto jumped and shouted as he tried to recover and get into a defensive stance. All attempts at defense were dropped when he saw just what it was that had just yelled. Crawling up to him with a look of determination and readiness, was a foot long red dragon.

"So tell me what mortals need my protection, Great Summoner. You just say the word and I'm there."

"Uh…"

"And let me just say something, anyone who's foolish enough to challenge OUR family, vengeance will be MINE! Grr…arrgh…"

Naruto stared down at the spunky little dragon silently, slowly kneeling down to his height with one knee up for him to prop his arm on as the dragon snarled with its head darting around. Looking behind it, Naruto saw bits of metal strewn about the other room, and no sign of the statue in sight. Never let it be said that it was impossible for Naruto to figure things out; he just figured them out slower than most others did. Which meant that, even he, was able to guess where this creature had come from. _How_ though, was another question altogether.

Slowly, with as deliberate a motion as possible, he cleared his throat to get his attention. The dragon, now realizing it wasn't alone, whipped his head towards him with wide eyes and an excited expression. Naruto, unsure what else to do, decided to be polite. "Um, hi?"

"Well hey~ there!" Racing up to him, he climbed up onto his knee to look Naruto in the eye even as he leaned back. "…hm, you're blonder then I heard your family being."

Naruto raised an eyebrow, before remembering that the scroll all had the same last name. Scratching his cheek, he chuckled nervously. "Um…is that right?"

"Yeah! I mean, it's been a while…uh, a long while…hm." The dragon scratched his chin, leaning towards Naruto before looking deep into his eyes. "I don't remember blue eyes being mentioned either. Mostly brown, or black. You must be the funniest lookin black sheep of the clan I ever heard of."

"Y-yeah…sure." Naruto said, remarkably dismissive about the whole thing. It was clear that this was meant to be a family thing, which meant that he might've been breaking a long line of tradition.

In his defense, they shouldn't have left it in a wall.

"So, um…what's your name?" Naruto asked, finally getting his head wrapped around enough to look at the creature without feeling weird that it had popped into his room.

"What?" He reeled back in shock. "You don't know about me? Wait, of _course_ you don't! This is the first I've been summoned in…ever!"

Getting off Naruto's knee, he displayed himself before Naruto. Inhaling, he let loose a cloud of smoke that gave off a much larger shadow on the far wall. Needless to say, Naruto's full and undivided attention was now given to the small creature.

"Ehem…" A small pause. "Ask me who I am again, it adds to the effect."

Naruto planted his face into the floor for a second, before deciding to play along. "Um…who are you?"

"Who am I? WHO am I? I am the guardian of lost souls! I am the powerful, the pleasurable, the indestructible Musshu." The dragon, Musshu, said as he stepped out of the cloud of smoke covered in little sparks as though he was Kami's gift to all things that walked upon the world at large. To his credit, he had Naruto as an audience, so he did get a bit of clapping for his little performance. "Ah, I'm pretty hot huh?"

Naruto reached over and grabbed a board, scribbling on it quickly before flipping it around. "Eight out of ten. You needed a bigger fire to come out of."

"Aw, I knew it was missing something!" Musshu said, snapping his claws (how do you even…nevermind) at this revelation. "Still, better then what the rest of the dragons give me. I'm lucky to get higher than a four nowadays."

"Dragons?" Naruto asked, his eyes wide in glee. Giddy, excited, and just about as hyper as Naruto could get by this fact, the possibilities were endless to his young mind.

"Yes, dra–gon's, we don't do that tongue thing." Musshu said, sticking out his tongue to do exactly what he said dragons _don't_ do.

A small sweat drop appeared on the back of Naruto's head at this, causing him to cough nervously. "Are…all dragons as funny as you?"

"Nah, some of 'em are real stiff and others are jerks. There's even this one who…" Musshu paused, staring at Naruto as something seemed to click. "Hey wait a minute. You summoned me here. Which means we have a summoner."

"Um…yeah?"

There was a tense silence between the two of them as Musshu blinked, trying to process all this new information. Then, he let out a very high pitched scream, raced into the other room, and disappeared in a rather large puff of smoke.

Gawking at the sudden whiplash from Musshu's mood swing, he scowled. He didn't even get a jutsu out of him before he left. Sighing, he slowly picked himself up and moved back to his table. When he bit into his food he moaned and put his head onto the table in displeasure.

His ramen had gotten cold. Could his day possibly get any worse?

* * *

On the other side of the summoning contract, in the realm of the dragons, Musshu popped back into existence still screaming like a little girl as he rolled up the summoning scroll. Holding the scroll that was practically as big as he was, he raced over the rocky terrain as he headed towards the one person he knew could help.

Around him, the landscape was remarkably diverse; ranging from exotic mountainsides to rolling hills, and even a lake off in the distance. The stone under his feet was coupled with traces of ash, indicating a volcanic eruption had happened at some point nearby, though not recently. Musshu was silently thankful for this, seeing how even dragons didn't think lava was safe for them. Seeing how he'd previously been made of steel, he could only imagine how a death by melting would feel. He quite honestly didn't want to though, as he had bigger things to worry about.

Breathing heavily, Musshu silently cursed the scroll in his hands as he ran on his back legs. More accustomed to running on all fours, the scroll slowed him down and made it harder to get where he was going at the speed he wanted. Worse for him, his claws dug deeper into the ground in his position, which meant that more ash was displaced with each step as he ran. Near a deep pit, he nearly lost his footing and dropped the scroll, but was able to catch a lucky break when his claw caught on a rocky protrusion. Shivering slightly, he winced when the small clicking noise of a rock falling into the pit caught his attention.

Slowly, fearfully, he turned to follow the stone's decent. Once it reached a certain point, it vanished into darkness; only the faint noise of it knocking off of other rocks let him know that it was even still moving. Holding his breath, he was now completely still as he waited. This was a bit bigger in the moment then his former objective, seeing as this could be the difference between life and death. Mainly his.

Not hearing anything for a couple of minutes, Musshu let out a slow breath and wiped his forehead. Glancing down at the scroll, he blinked for a moment before he remembered what he'd been doing previous.

"Oh, right. Ehem…" Taking a deep breath, he once more began screaming as high pitched as his tiny form could muster as he raced up towards the topmost point on the mountain, where one of the wisest and greatest dwelled. If anyone would know what to do about this, it would be him; especially since he actually remembered when the dragons had summoners.

Reaching a flat plateau, Musshu froze as he took in the sight before him. It had been years since he'd been up here, and probably years more since there had been any need for anyone to be up here. The scene had changed little, and it made him grateful seeing how he would have been lost otherwise. Four stone pillars were placed on the four corners, dragons etched into the stone crawling up each with their heads pointing in their respective direction in honor of the four dragon kings from centuries ago when dragons had set first claw upon this land and established themselves as a nation rather than as nomads. The ground was unspoiled and even from the many who'd once walked here, except for a few places where dragons had agitatedly dug into the ground with their claws.

Musshu paused and stared at his own claws briefly. Would he be that strong? Time would tell soon enough, but the waiting was killing him.

Sighing, he looked the last major object on the plateau, situated directly between the four dragon pillars. It was massive, even when he could see that the heavy body was wrapped around itself, and towered over him a hundred times over. Its visible arm was thick and ended with hooked claws that were more likely used for traction then attack if the blunt ends were any indication. The face was shorter, and more broad then Musshu's own, displaying the raw physical power behind the creature.

Now the only thing it needed was for it to actually be breathing, seeing how the dragon before him was completely covered in stone.

"Uh…stony?" Musshu said quietly, holding the scroll tightly as he slowly made his was up to its feet. Reaching hesitantly forwards, he tapped the stone and stared up at it. "Great Stone Dragon? Are…are you awake?"

No reply.

Whimpering, Musshu placed the scroll on the ground and began crawling up the dragon's face. "Come on, please be awake? I haven't had anyone to teach me how to get you up yet." Moving up to where he could stare into its eyes, he slowly waved his hand in front of it and darted between both of them as he stared with a small amount of hope. "Stony?"

Only smooth stone of closed eyes stared back at him.

Wringing his hands together, he turned around and stared at the world behind him. Surprisingly, despite being the realm of dragons, there were remarkably few to see. By few meaning he could see none, and the few he knew where they were he didn't necessarily _want_ to find. Even among dragons there were bad eggs that gave children nightmares. Which was why he needed the 'Great Stone Dragon' to wake up first; no one opposed his decisions, and he was considered amongst the wisest and strongest in dragon-kind. The only problem was that Musshu was considered the youngest, and possibly the dumbest of dragon-kind.

Life has a funny way of working things out.

However, Musshu did have one advantage that few other dragons did; he had a lot of traits that could be considered parallel to one Uzumaki Naruto's. One such trait was remembering extremely obscure details only mentioned maybe once and then using them to his advantage. In this case, it was how he himself had been awakened from his steel-skinned slumber.

"Okay, so…what happened?" Musshu muttered, pacing back and forth. "I was…no that was before I was sleeping. Okay, so when I woke up, I was surrounded by…what, blue smoke? Okay, and then I saw the human…who~'s name I didn't get. Stony won't like that part. Gah! Focus, focus! Okay, so blue smoke…um…what the hell makes blue smoke? Smoke bomb? No it wouldn't wake me up. Solvent blue? Where the hell would he have even had that? Hm…chakra?"

Pausing at that though, he looked at his red claws with a focused stared. After a few seconds, the area around his scales began to wisp gently, as residual chakra was heated against his body in a release of energy. Grinning, he took a deep breath of the smoke, making sure not to waste what he'd just released, and turned to the Great Stone Dragon. Letting the chakra sit for a second, he reared back and unleashed the chakra at the stone with a much stronger blue fire that crackled along the stone scales of the dragon. Once he was done, and he'd finished coughing at the first release in a long time, he waited to see the results of his work.

There was silence for what felt like a long time to Musshu; in actuality it was around three minutes, or the time it took to heat up ramen. Then, at the end of that wait, the fire suddenly erupted from in front of him and caused Musshu to yelp and scramble off its face as it began to quite quickly consume the stone before it. Scooping up the scroll on his way, he ducked behind a statue and slowly peaked out as he watched. Arching over its back, it raced in various patterns and shapes as it dug into the scales and rapidly began forming cracks in the stone.

Within moments, the entirety of the stone was on fire, and the cracking was becoming a rumble. As the fire died down and sunk into its stone skin, the rumble became an outward blast of fire and stone as it was launched off of the dragon, revealing a green dragon slumbering beneath. Each scale seemed even larger as it protruded outwards, no longer given the layer of covering from the stone, and was at least twice as long as Musshu was. On top of his head, two antler-like horns stuck up and arched slightly back towards his neck, with four points on each going down it.

Hesitating, Musshu slowly peaked around the pillar again. Gulping, he made his way up to the still semi-slumbering dragon. "Um…G-g-great Stone Dragon?"

There was a slow snore that erupted, almost dragging Musshu into the dragon's nostrils. It _did_ pick him off the ground and just barely let him land on the scales just before his face. Knowing better then to wait for the release of air, Musshu clambered over its snout to sit on it with the scroll as he cleared his throat. With a slow movement, traces of dust and pebbles falling from its eyelids, it opened its eyes and stared at the small dragon seated on its nose. The black sclera contrasted the glow of golden yellow eyes that slowly adjusted to the light and focused on Musshu, to which he swallowed heavily.

"Uh…hi?" Musshu said nervously.

Blinking slowly, it refocused on Musshu, only to tilt its head slightly upon seeing the scroll. Musshu barely caught himself, the 'small' tilt throwing off his balance due to how much of a change it was comparatively. Once he got himself situated, he had to stumble again as the Great Stone Dragon returned its head to its former position, rumbling deeply in thought as it stared at Musshu.

Shaking slightly as he was one more reminded of how much smaller he was, Musshu slowly cleared his throat. "I-I-I come with-with news, oh Great Stone Dragon." Slowly, he thrust his hands forward with the scroll in his hand. "I was summoned to the realm of human, and met with the one who summoned me. We…we have a new summoner."

There was a silence between the two of them, causing Musshu to twitch. While he wanted to glance up, he didn't wish there to be any disrespect in his position. Dragons were a proud race, and it was more often than not that even a small slight could end with a battle to the death as two dragons engaged in honor-bound mortal combat. However, they were also rather curious, and so it was that Musshu eventually lost his internal war and peaked over the scroll. To his surprise, the look he was getting was one filled with mirth. A small chuckle escaped the giant dragon, causing Musshu to relax slightly in confusion.

"**My name…is Shinryuu. Do you not remember, that one should be addressed by name first? A title should only be used in reference to an enemy, or those that you've become close to young dragon."**

The booming masculine voice of Shinryuu caused the stones around them to rattle as he spoke. Despite the kind tone in his voice, Musshu squeaked softly, suddenly realizing his error as he bowed quickly. "I apologize Shinryuu! There…have been scarce few who have been around to tell me, and my time of molting not yet come. Please forgive my mistake!"

"**Hohoho. I won't harm you young dragon."** Shinryuu said, slowly uncurling to allow Musshu to feel a bit safer as he moved closer to the ground. **"I am surprised though, that one so close to the time of molting would awaken…it does not sound as though it was necessarily planned though. Tell me…"**

"Musshu."

"**Musshu. Where is this summoner you brought?"**

Musshu blinked, his voice nervous as he slowly rubbed his hands together. "Uh…yeah, about that. You see I…kinda sorta…forgot to bring him back with me."

Shinryuu raised an eyebrow at that. Had no one told him? Then again, with all that had happened between the dragons, it wasn't all that surprising. With no summoner in his lifetime, Musshu likely wouldn't know the old customs that the dragons had in place. This would need to be amended soon, though it did give him some hope as well. Maybe…maybe they could keep this one?

"**Musshu, after being summoned, one is to bring the summoner to our realm so that he may judge him worthy. It is not your fault for not having known, but this will put us back a ways. Do you understand?"** Shinryuu asked, watching as Musshu nodded vigorously. Noting the scroll in his hands, Shinryuu blinked and decided to take note of it. **"Musshu…why do you have our summoning scroll in your claws?"**

"Huh? Oh this?" Musshu glanced at it, shuffling nervously on Shinryuu's snout. "Well…you see, when I got a look at it, the kid had rolled it all the way to the end. His name is the last one in our scroll. He…might be our last chance, so I took the scroll so we could make a new one. Maybe, you know, have another summoner later?"

Shinryuu's eyes became downcast, a heavy sigh kicked up dust as he spoke. **"Truly you have not been taught our traditions. We have slept longer then we needed having none who required us. However, it will not do for me alone to speak of these things."**

Musshu blinked, slowly pointing to the statues around him. "You…don't mean."

"**Go wake them. **_**All**_** of them."** Shinryuu said, tilting his snout so that Musshu could slide off onto the ground. Raising himself to full height, he gazed up at the clouds with a wistful look on his face. **"We will have the council ready before the child's summoning."** Suddenly, small droplets of rain began falling, bringing a smile to Shinryuu's face. **"Hm, it seems Haru is awakening again. Perhaps this child will allow us all the same gift he has…"**

Completely unsure of what he was talking about, Musshu simply shrugged and moved the scroll out of the way so it wouldn't be damaged by the falling rain. Staring up at the massive dragon, he took a second before finally coughing into his hand to get the dragon's attention. When Shinryuu looked down at him, he rubbed his hands together nervously. "Ahah, Shinryuu-sama…when you say 'the council', you don't happen to mean…every single one do you? I mean, one missing dragon won't offset things _that_ much…right?"

"**Without even that power, the boy will not be fully tested, and should he fail the testing…not even Inari himself would stop the necessary punishment."**

Musshu winced, whimpering softly as he bowed his head. Rubbing his hands together, he groaned. "…yes Shinryuu-sama. I understand. I…will go wake Haru first. He is the furthest away…so…"

Shinryuu nodded, making a 'shooing' motion with his clawed hand. Musshu, needing no more incentive, took off like a bolt of lightning down the mountainside towards where he'd been told Haru slumbered. After watching him depart, Shinryuu sighed.

"…**even the young ones fear you. I wonder, were you to be the same dragon you once were, would you truly believe that this outcome was the one you'd ever want?"** Shinryuu muttered. Knowing there would be no reply at the moment, he turned and began lumbering down the mountainside as well. **"It would be best to awaken you now…so as to save young Musshu the displeasure of having to deal with your awakening. Sigh, I just hope you awaken in a better state then before you laid yourself to rest."**

With a flick of his tail, he once more looked at the sky with a smile. Things were changing for them; for better or worse, it remained to be seen. However, one thing would be true; this gathering of dragons could prove to be the greatest event in all their long lives…or it could prove to be their last.

* * *

AN: Well, that was fun! Now, to address a few things before I get the paperweight thrown at me;

1. For those of you who don't know, Naruto is an idiot. That's why I can see why Sarutobi and everyone else didn't tell him his lineage after the Wave Mission; he still wouldn't have understood the gravity of what he was being told. In a later scene, Naruto basically says he didn't even know he had called on the Kyuubi's chakra while he was mad; just that it was a 'different chakra' that was 'red' and not 'blue'. This means he didn't recognize just how close to destruction he'd walked, and how worried he'd made people like Kakashi, even if only momentarily.

2. Yes, I broke the fourth wall as Narrator a bit. Don't worry, I fixed it. Mostly. I think...maybe?

3. Kakashi let him take the scroll because he didn't think it would be anything dangerous for two reasons. One, they're in a civilian sector of the city, and...well...Naruto's an idiot. Don't get me wrong! Naruto will be smarter, it's just...well...see number 1 again. Kakashi didn't really pay attention to what Naruto said, and simply let it slide. In case you didn't notice though, Kakashi _is not_ a bad guy; he let Naruto keep it after all.

...oh great, he's going to start corrupting the child. Fan-frickin-tastic.

4. Yes, Musshu _is_ based on someone else (guess who, another prize winner you shall be). If you don't know who it is...wow, did I not make the signs glaringly obvious? However, he won't be exactly the same as his counterpart. There will be a few other mentions (via names and appearance) like with Shinryuu (if you get who he's based on you get a prize _and _a cookie) and other shows (which is the point of the x-overs part), however they will be playing by _my__ rules._

My rules tend to involve things becoming more of a spiral and with more things bumping into each other then the Rasengan.

5. Criticism is wanted, but if you say "it sucks" I will likely end up laughing. Come at me bros! I want you to show me you paid attention so that we can rob that thief and give you something good!

And that should about do it for that. Oh! Also, the pairing for this is undecided, so cast your vote so see! I have a personal hope/preference, but then again I'm willing to see what others want to see for this story. So~ yeah, bring it on!

Thanks for reading, and I hope you all enjoyed Chapter 1.


	2. Chapter 2

Um...I can totally explain how this happened. Um...uh...nope, got nothing. Well, nothing witty anyways.

For those of you who can't tell, I got inspired and said "Screw the rules my free time need more dragons!" and thus I wrote chapter 2 for this. All 10,000 words of it. Man...these chapters may need to be toned back. I mean...wait, no. I can totally do 10,000 words for each chapter. And if I cannot, then I will write more for my Word of Honor! And if I can't do that then - oh wow channeling Gai and Lee there...sorry about that.

Anyways, onto the show!

* * *

**Who Walks Among Dragons**

_He called to them from obscurity, and they replied like thunder. Both proved worthy of the others pride, and dreams. Now Naruto will grapple with a power none else had survived, and prove how his brand of unpredictability can change anyone._

* * *

Chapter 2

After an evening with possibly the strangest events happening, having a summon that basically ran away from him, and then being unable to find the scroll he'd signed to check on it, the annoying ringing of an alarm clock woke that Naruto bright and early did not help his mood. With a small grumble, he flailed his arm in the air for a second before bringing it lightly onto the device to silence it. Staring up at the ceiling, he slowly rose in a zombie-like manner. Rubbing his eyes and sighing, he got himself ready for the day.

A quick shower after putting water on to boil, he emerged just as it whistled so he could pour it into his ramen cup. Waiting for the three minutes was his least favorite part of eating ramen, and today it was made worse because he had things clearly on his mind.

First; what the hell had happened to Musshu last night? He'd seemed fine at the beginning, and Naruto figured they both were having a bit of fun seeing how awesomely over the top Musshu could be. His smoke and fire introduction of himself had given Naruto plenty of ideas for ways he could try that later for himself. Maybe if he found a way to make it orange…that would be beyond awesome. When they'd been starting to talk about the _really_ interesting bits though, he'd just screamed and run away. It was frustrating.

Second; where had his scroll gotten to? It had been fully unrolled so that he could get to the end, but with the limited amount of information he'd gotten from Musshu he'd pieced together that whatever had set him off was because he was a summoner. The only problem? He couldn't find out anything about what being a summoner meant, seeing how the scroll that might've told him anything was no longer in his room. Maybe it went back to the summons when he'd summoned Musshu, to show them their new awesome summoner? If that were true, why had Musshu reacted like that?

And his final confusion, and possibly the smartest thing his brain could even blindly think of; why had the scroll been in a wall?

Unfortunately, that final question had even less theories, and even more questions attached to it. After all, he'd summoned a _dragon_ and yet whoever had it before had hidden it away? Why? The more questions that came to his mind, the more Naruto wished he had a piece of paper to write them all down with that wasn't going to be important for his later, more awesome exploits. Gripping his head as though it could help alleviate his headache, he gave up for now. Breaking his chopsticks and loudly shouting his thanks for the meal, he dug into his food.

Once done, Naruto threw the cup away and made his way to a 'backroom' part of his apartment. Contrary to some people's belief, namely no one's since few people cared, his room wasn't simply one room. In a connected space to his room and housing area, there was a connected room. There, he stored a lot of what he'd acquired or put things so he could practice with them.

In one corner of the room, he had a training dummy that he'd made to look like his sensei Kakashi. In made far more sense this way to him; after all, if he could beat his sense, Sasuke couldn't dream of beating him. The main problem with that logic was that Kakashi was leagues above him at the moment, which meant he still needed plenty of practice before _that_ was possible. But then, that was why he had the thing in the first place.

In another corner, he had scrolls of all sorts. Some were on chakra theory, some were on different ways to fight, and he'd recently gotten some on pressure points and Anbu tactics. Truly he'd acquired a small library of his own that he could look through at his leisure, and become awesome from it. With no one to test it out on, and with fewer still who could explain the concepts that he'd seen in them, he wound up forgetting most of the stuff in them before he could ever apply them. It didn't help that he had the focus of a chicken on speed most days, but that of a soldier primed for battle during a fight. Thus continues the circle of Naruto confusing nature.

What Naruto was looking for here though was to check to see if Ukki-san and his other plant friends were alright. No one in his class or outside, as far as he knew, was aware that he'd taken up a hobby taking care of plants. He wouldn't quite call it gardening because he didn't have a true garden, just a couple of potted plants that he took care of. Each had its own name, but Ukki-san was the one that he'd had the longest, and as such was the one that he felt closest to. Or at least, as close as one can feel to a plant. He'd heard somewhere that talking to plants helped them be healthier, so that made his connection closer to them as he softly spoke to them as he worked.

"Hey Ukki-san." Naruto said, gently patting its leaves. Getting some water, he slowly began watering Ukki-san and the others as he slowly looked them over. "Mah, Ukki-san, you're taking all the sun! You need to be nicer to the other plants, they need some to you know. You're little, but you definitely know how to be a sun hog when you want to be."

Snickering at his 'joke', he gave it a tiny bit more water as he turned each on in turn to allow it a better chance of getting the sun he needed. A lot of it had been trial and error, with less error once he'd quickly realized that mistakes could lead to the plants dying on him. He didn't want that.

Poking one of the new plants, his eyes grew distant as he remembered the seed's origin. Though just a sprout, the seed he'd gotten from Nami no Kuni was growing nicely, and the little bud was more than enough to let him know it was a strong little seed. "See Ukki-san? Haku needs to grow too." Straightening out, he gave the plants a look before grinning. "Alright, keep an eye on Haku Ukki-san. I want him to grow up big and strong, just like you okay? Don't get into trouble while I'm out. Last thing I need is for you to get into trouble while I'm with my team."

Chuckling again, he headed into his apartment to prepare to head to his team's meeting place for the mission. Normally it was at a bridge just west of the Hokage's Tower, but today he was headed in the other direction towards the estates they were tearing down. A part of him wanted to just use his clones and be done with it, but Kakashi had told him he didn't want him using jutsu. Something about not having enough eyes in the world to keep an eye on him or something.

As he thought of this, he paused as his jacket hung off his arm. Technically, if he did something _before_ the mission, it wouldn't count as being made _on_ the mission. Which would mean that if he were to, oh let's just say, summon a fire breathing dragon to help out, Kakashi couldn't really say anything about that.

Grinning, Naruto finished pulling on his jacket and moved to the center of his room. Pausing, he thought about Musshu again. What if he got a different dragon that wasn't as cool as Musshu? What if it was a lot bigger then he was? What if this new one was meaner and attacked him? What if –

Naruto had already bit his thumb, run through the hand seals and slammed his hand on the ground before these questions even popped into his head. As the black scrawl covered the floor, he realized this could've been planned much better. Still, as the smoke erupted, he waited patiently to see who he got.

* * *

In the summoning realm of the dragons, Musshu quickly discovered he had a problem upon arriving at the river where Haru slept. While he had a lot going for him, with a good night's rest and getting to his location in what was a record for him, he'd simply let this single fact go right over his head.

He didn't have enough chakra to wake Haru up.

Or rather, he didn't have any _human_ chakra in his reserves to use. Dragons were not immune to their own fire or the attacks of other dragons, but once a dragon went into the state of sleep there was only a few ways in which he knew they could be awakened.

One was that a god called for them. When this happened, it was quite literally a call to war, and one that every dragon knew from their scales to their teeth that _must_ be responded to immediately. The next best bet was to for a dragon from the same 'family' as the other dragon, but that wasn't viable seeing as Musshu was a red fire dragon and Haru wasn't. The final method he knew about, and possibly the simplest when it was actually applicable, was to have a human give another dragon some of their chakra so that their fire would…change, and it would spread through whatever the dragon had wrapped themselves in to allow themselves their great sleep. Once enveloped, it…would do something, and then they'd wake up.

Musshu didn't pay much attention to those last parts since he'd never imagined he'd ever meet a human.

Now though, not only had he met one, he'd been summoned by one! And, after freaking out when his mind finally caught up to the reality of what had happened, he'd then run away and forgotten to bring him to the summoning realm to keep him fueled to continue to awaken the other dragons. Which was a very bad thing, seeing how Shinryuu had called for the council to come together. Musshu was a great messenger, but even he wasn't good enough to get out of this one without some clever work.

"Oh, Stony's gonna kill me." He muttered, pacing the river's edge in worry. "Okay, okay…he doesn't know that Haru's still asleep, so I can just…say he didn't want to get up. Yeah, that's good. And then I'll go wake up the other…dragons…and say they were sleeping too? Yeah, I'm sure they'd all be so tired after a couple decades asleep."

Slapping a claw over his eyes, he shook his head. That was a very dumb idea. It was almost as bad as when he'd been involved in the incident with Ping after he'd lent him some money to go to the mountains. Ah, good times. Or not, depending on your point of view. It was a long story.

"Focus Musshu, focus!" He said, scratching his head as he tried to think of a way out of this. "Come on, I can do this! I mean, it's not like our summoner is gonna just call for me to come see him again after the way I left last night. He'd have to have really, _really_ liked my first impression to – why do I feel all…tingly?"

Blinking, he felt a sudden pull on his presence. Shrugging, he relaxed and let himself be 'pulled' towards it. The tingling sensation increased until, with a puff of smoke, Musshu left the summon's realm.

And found himself face to face with a whole lot of orange.

"…it's finally happened. I've gone color blind!" Musshu shouted, covering his eyes and falling over dramatically. "It's over, all I can see is orange! I knew I shouldn't have let myself be pulled into this, I just knew it!"

"Musshu!"

Eyes snapping open, Musshu peaked from in between his claws. Thankful to see some color again, his eye glanced down and blinked slowly at the sight before him. Whirling to his feet, he all but tackled the boy's leg.

"Oh thank Kami!" He shouted, wrapping tightly around his leg. "I knew you'd call me back, I just knew it! I knew my devilish charms and awesome nature would get you to call me back!"

"Uh…" The boy looked confused. "That's not what I was expecting, but I guess it works." Kneeling down so that he could be closer to Musshu, he grinned widely. "How are ya Musshu?"

Musshu let go of his leg, zipping around to get a better look at the boy. From the night before, he'd been…preoccupied with his own introduction, and as such he'd forgotten to get a good look at him besides general colors. The boy had spikey blond hair that seemed to stick out uncontrollably, and yet didn't cover his face much thanks to the headband across his forehead that was sporting a metal plate on it. His blue eyes looked at him with a look he remembered himself having on more than one occasion; one of barely concealed excitement and curiosity. Further down, the boy wore an amazingly orange tracksuit that had a few slashes of blue and white on it, including the white high collar part of it. Looking him over again, Musshu noticed that there was a symbol on the metal plate attached to his headband. Turning his head and squinting a bit, he almost thought it looked like a leaf in a sense. Or was it a bird? Maybe if he turned his head the other way he'd be able to – whoops, he was being talked to.

"Uh, what was that? I kinda spaced there for a second."

The boy pouted, before grinning again. "I said, it's a shame I got you again since I was hoping for a big fire breathing dragon to help me out, but then I figured that it'd be way cooler to talk to you since you're pretty neat."

Aw, well that was nice. Sure he wasn't the epic fire breathing monstrosity he could be yet, but at least he wanted to talk to him. Right?

"Hey, I can breathe fire too ya know." Seeing him raise an eyebrow, he growled. "Watch this."

Taking a deep breath, he let loose a fireball the size of his head that very quickly died out before it could get further then his head. To him though, this was a great success.

"Ha, you see! Now that's what I call my old man's barbeque." Musshu said proudly, looking up at the boy with crossed arms and a smirk. Compared to some other dragons, or rather any older dragon, it was a pitiful display. However, he'd worked hard to be able to even breathe the small fire before his first molting, and he'd done it so by gum he was proud of himself!

"That…was tiny."

Flinching, he turned on the boy and scowled. "Oh yeah? Well why don't _you_ try making a fireball then? Or better yet, come down here and say that to my face you…uh…um…wait, what's your name again?"

Any semblance of threating he was going for was thrown out the window, which luckily for Musshu meant that both of their previous comments were now forgotten. "Ah, I'm Uzumaki Naruto!"

Silence.

"That's it?"

Naruto blinked, not sure what to make of that. "What do you mean?"

Musshu sighed. Clearly this human had not been taught in the proper ways of being epic. Waving his hands, he shook his head and explained. "No, no, no that won't work. Not like that anyway. You don't have the pizzazz~! The spunk, the fire! You gotta make yourself stand out Naruto! Now come on and give me a _real_ introduction! Tell me; who _are_ you_?_"

Naruto blinked, scratching his head. Before Musshu slapped his face again in pity, a light came into his eyes. Letting out a shout, he hopped back and slammed a smoke bomb onto the floor. Apparently he'd learned something about how smoke helps a person stand out when it cleared. Perking up, he tented his claws together as he watched over the new introduction.

"I am the man who will become the next Hokage!" A voice said from the middle of the cloud, the shadow becoming noticeable now that the smoke was beginning to settle. To Musshu's surprise, two more shadows could be seen through the cloud.

"The hero of Nami no Kuni…" The shadow on the left spoke, the shadow of his arm motioning towards the center.

"The most unpredictable shinobi in all of Konohagakure no Sato…" The shadow on the right said as he too pointed to the center figure.

Throwing his arms to the side, he pushed some of the smoke away to reveal his grinning form and the form of two clones who were presenting him dramatically. "The super awesome, Uzumaki Naruto!"

Musshu blinked, glancing between the three of them for a brief moment. Picking up a piece of paper to scribble on for a moment, he finally nodded and held it up. "I give ya six out of ten."

"…what!" One of the clones shouted, stomping his foot angrily. "That was at least an eight you red lizard!"

"Dragon!" Musshu said, sticking his tongue out at the blonde. "And you didn't do as good as ya'll could have. I mean come on, the setup is amazing, but the finish…meh. You get bonus points for these two introducing you, but you dropped it at the ending. You need something that'll pop more than 'super awesome', and that'll catch the ladies attention too. There was _no_ appeal to the ladies there. Maybe 'international lady's man' or some other bigger words that'll make you sound intelligent."

Naruto and the clone blinked, tapping their chins in synch as they thought it over. Musshu chuckled softly at this, amazed by how in synch he was with them that they were able to do something like thinking with flawlessly coordinated movements. Starting to see fumes come from their ears as they likely overthought what was really something simple, he waved them off.

"Alright, alright, listen up. You don't need to worry about that, alright? I, the great and powerful Musshu, will be your instructor and tutor in making an epic intro." Musshu said, with a toothy grin.

"Ah…right." Naruto said, not completely sure what to make of that. Musshu's intro _was_ pretty epic, but when Naruto had given his points it was on the performance. If he added the titles…damn, it would still be better than his. "So…should I call you Musshu-sensei?"

Musshu's eyes seemed to gleam at this question. "Yes, yes you should. You may also call me; Oh Great One, the Guardian of Summoner's, or the Red Screaming Whirlwind of Doom."

"…what?"

"It's a long story, I'll tell ya later."

"Okay then." Naruto scratched his cheek. At the thought of 'later', his eyes widened and his head snapped to his clock. "Oh crap, I'm going to be late!"

"Late? Late for what?" Musshu asked, watching as Naruto ran towards the door.

"I have a mission with my team!" Naruto replied, flinging open the door and began rushing down towards the stairs to get on his way.

Musshu popped his head out of the doorway, a curious look in his eyes. "Can I come?" Seeing Naruto stumble, he quickly ran up to him. Climbing up his leg, he pushed himself under Naruto's jacket and moved quickly to pop his head out by Naruto's ear. "I promise I'll be quiet, just let me watch how you humans interact. Please? Oh please oh please oh please oh please oh please~?"

"Alright, alright, jeez calm down Musshu." Naruto muttered, surprised to be the voice of reason for a change.

"Yes! Woohoo, road trip!" Musshu shouted as Naruto took off towards where they were going. As they traveled, Musshu couldn't help but feel a bubbling feeling as they ran down the streets. After a couple seconds, he recognized it as his sense to obligatorily break out into song.

The streets of Konoha were filled with the strange sound of "Don't Stop Me Now" set on repeat, which eventually turned into an even odder duet once Naruto figured out the words and began to sing along.

* * *

At their current meeting point, Sasuke slowly sat down on a nearby stump and stared out at the housing district they were tearing down. It was less of a district what with all the previous work that had been done that had involved tearing down the other parts, but Sasuke had been quick to realize what this place was; a graveyard.

Maybe Naruto had a point with all of his ramblings when they'd been first coming to this place.

Not the ghosts or anything like that, but the idea of walking on someone's memory. This had been a place that people grew up in, that they'd made memories in and done Kami knows what else. People had lived and died here and now…there was nothing but houses and streets, empty and lonesome to those who looked at it. It was depressing.

Tenting his fingers as he looked over the buildings, his frown increased slightly as his mind wandered slightly to topics closer to home. Was this what the Uchiha District looked like? He knew that it felt similar sometimes with the haunted way one's footsteps echoed as they walked the empty streets, but surely there wasn't _that_ much in common with a place like this. So why did he get a cold chill that ran up his spine every time he stared over this place? Like a ghost from the past was waiting for the last piece of wood that made up the humble homes to fall so it could...do whatever it was waiting for. Leave, go find a new place to haunt, Sasuke didn't care just so long as it didn't follow _him._

He didn't need any more ghosts following him.

To his surprise, he was actually able to get a few more minutes of silence and meditation before it was broken. He'd almost wager that he could've fallen asleep there, if the flash of pink coming up the hillside that overlooked the place hadn't caught his eye. Bright eyed and practically bouncing as she ran up to him, he sighed as he greeted the girl.

"Hi Sasuke-kun!"

"Hn."

A traditional Uchiha Sasuke greeting if there ever was one.

While normally he'd expect Sakura to giggle at him even acknowledging her existence, she simply sat down near him and stared out with him. After their run in when Naruto had…ambushed him, she'd seemed a bit more uncertain of her standing with him. With the mission in Nami, and his near death experience, she'd gotten a bit clingier and wanted to stick around him as much as possible. To his surprise, he didn't mind quite as much anymore so long as it was moments like this; quiet, and with only the necessary dialogue between them.

Occasionally she would wring her hands together as though she had something to ask, but he ignored it since she never did come out and say it. He had plenty of good ideas as to what she wanted, but his answer was likely going to be the same regardless. With the activation of his Sharingan, he'd discovered that using it in battle situations was going to drag him down without proper practice and training. As such, he'd been training like crazy to make sure that his new eyes were able to help him and his team instead of dragging him down and making him as bad as Naruto was.

Speaking of the orange wonder, he could see him coming up the hill now. He appeared to be jogging at a brisk pace and…wait, was he singing?

"…don't stop me now~ cause I'm having a good time, don't stop me now~ yes I'm having a good time, I don't wanna stop at all~" Naruto sang as he ran up to them. "Hey guys, what's up?"

Sasuke and Sakura just stared at Naruto for a second before replying, having never seen Naruto quite as cheery and ever in a singing mood.

"Um, not much Naruto." Sakura replied, still unsure what to make of the strange scene that he'd greeted them with.

"You're the last one here again, so nothing new here." Sasuke replied, shrugging as he turned away. If Naruto wanted to suddenly change how he showed up who was he to judge? He just hoped that it didn't become a normal thing for them; he didn't want to get used to Naruto singing everywhere he went.

"I had to put out a fire." Naruto said, glancing to the side with a guilty look on his face.

Now _that_ got their attention. "You set something on fire?" Sakura asked, sounding a bit concerned for Naruto. Likely it was for Naruto's mental stability more than anything, but it was still a bit of a change from her just hitting him on the head and being done with it. "What the hell did you _do?_"

"It wasn't my fault!" Naruto replied, waving his arms wildly. "You see I – gack…" Naruto paused as he suddenly jumped and rubbed his shoulder. "…I was practicing making a super awesome intro with a smoke bomb…and it…kinda got out of control."

Eyebrow twitching, Sakura smacked him on his blond head. Sasuke almost sighed at the familiar sight; it was almost like old times…but in a better way. "Idiot! You don't start a fire with smoke bombs! They aren't flammable like that!"

"But Sakura-chan~ there was –" Naruto began before Sakura smacked him again.

"Don't make excuses!" Sakura shouted again. Taking a deep breath, she gently rubbed her head. "Seriously…what would we do if you burnt your house to the ground? I mean really, where would you go?"

Naruto frowned and Sasuke glanced at the two of them with a raised eyebrow. That was a rather good question, seeing how Naruto was pretty much living on his own based on what they knew about him. Which was still not all that much, but more than the two of them knew about Sasuke so he wasn't complaining. Still though, had he planned anything in case of something like that?

"Don't worry Sakura-chan, I won't let my apartment burn down! I'm too awesome to let something like that happen." Naruto said with his normal big grin.

No, no he clearly hadn't.

Shaking his head, Sasuke decided to ignore the two of them for now, seeing how ridiculous Naruto sounded turned him off from wanting to hear any more. Even he had a backup plan for if something happened to his apartment; an entire district waiting for him to return once he'd finished his self-imposed mission that he could use until he could move out again.

Which brought him back to this district they were tearing down. Who were they? Kakashi didn't say anything, and there wasn't anything in the mission description about who the people who'd lived here before were. While normally he'd just do his job and be done with it, he felt that someone should be thinking about stuff like this. After all, it was quite possible that after he was gone, if there was no one else to take over the Uchiha District it would end up like this.

If that happened, he hoped that someone would at least take a moment to wonder about what great people might've lived there and question what ever happened to them.

"Yo."

"You're late!"

"Mah, mah." Kakashi said dismissively. "I'm only just barely late today."

Sakura and Naruto scowled at him, knowing that he was right; he was only a half hour later than normal. A new record for 'closest to on time', but still not the results they were hoping for.

With a bit of coaxing for them to calm down, they headed back down to finish the last half dozen homes they needed to work on to finish it up. Kakashi was pleased that they'd came up with the plan to divide and conquer themselves, even if he figured that tearing them down with each other's help would be faster. Especially with how slow Sakura had taken the first time around. He gave her points for not being afraid of manual labor, but she had approached it daintily and treated it like it was going to bite her.

Of the three, she _was_ the one who wielded the sledgehammer the best though, so that did give her some points. She must've gotten some extra strength from all the times she'd punched Naruto in the head.

Naruto, after getting into his house, glared over his shoulder; or rather, he glared down his back. "Musshu, what the hell?"

Musshu popped up next to him and poked his nose with a serious look on his face. "I told you I just want to watch. That means you do _not_ mention me. Would you want me throwing off your stealth by blabbing where you were at?"

"I wasn't!" Naruto hissed, feeling Musshu's claw dig slightly into his shoulder. "Stop doing that!"

"Keep your voice down then." Musshu said, slipping back into his shirt and put himself back to back with Naruto as he kept talking, eyes peaking over Naruto's jacket. "Besides, I wanted to learn more about your friends. Who was mister tall-dark-and-broody?"

"Hm? Oh you mean Sasuke." Naruto shrugged, getting back to work as he talked. For a job like this, he could afford a bit of distraction while he worked. "Well, he's a bit of a prick, but I think he's got a lot on his shoulders sometimes. He told me once that…well he mentioned that his ambition is to kill someone."

Naruto flinched at that memory, the recent knowledge of _who_ it was making that an even stranger topic to think about. And he'd thought he was just trying to look cool when he'd said it at their first team meeting; he felt like the idiot a lot of people called him, seeing how he'd inwardly just brushed him off. He still wasn't sure if Sasuke was comfortable talking about it seeing how he'd only told him when he figured he was dying, so he didn't bother bringing it up again.

"Uh, aren't you all ninja? It may just be me here, but your jobs are to oh I don't know, kill people?" Musshu asked, trying to wrap his mind around that idea. He'd heard about ninja before, and he thought they sounded pretty neat sometimes. It was probably why dragons had let them make a contract with them in the first place, but…for a ninja to say that he had what accounted to a 'personal hit list' didn't sound right to him.

"We…" Naruto paused, hands gripping the drywall as he thought over that question. Zabuza and Haku's faces popped into his head, causing him to frown deeply. "We are ninja, but we are more than just someone's tool to get a job done. I will show the world that I can be a ninja in my own way and follow my own rules, dattebayo!"

"…what's a dattebayo?"

Naruto shrugged. "I dunno, it's just kinda a personal twitch I guess. I'm the only one who says it anyway, so it's kinda my own thing."

"Hm, you know you should throw that in at the end of your intro." Musshu said, tapping his chin in thought. "It's unique and kind of a staple of 'you' so they won't forget you. What do ya think?"

Naruto ripped a large chunk of drywall with a smirk on his face. "I like it! The super fantastic Uzumaki Naruto, dattebayo!"

"Still need to work on the titles, but it's still a nice touch." Musshu said with a grin. Glancing out the window, he tapped his chin as he remembered Naruto's other teammate. "And what about the other one?"

"Eh? Other what?"

"The violent girl who hit you because you threw a smoke bomb in your house."

"Oh Sakura-chan." Naruto said with a small smile on his face as he spoke. "Well, she's Sakura-chan. She's pretty, she smart, and she's on my team. What more do you want to know?"

Musshu turned slowly, _very_ slowly towards Naruto with a look of immense curiosity. "Dude, she hit you. Several times. For throwing a smoke bomb. What kind of woman does that?"

Naruto frowned, glancing at Musshu. "She was just worried about me. I said I was putting out a fire –"

"Which you were."

"And so she was worried –"

"Which is normal."

"And when I explained, it sounded really stupid, so she hit me."

"Which sounded painful. Why didn't you dodge?"

"I've been hit harder." Naruto said dismissively. Sighing, he stopped what he was doing for a second as he tried to explain a bit better. "…I don't want to worry her, and her hitting me is kinda her way of telling me she was worried. So, I let her hit me."

"Which is really dumb. I mean, why? She's not even all that pretty."

"You take that back!" Naruto said, hissing as Musshu dug a claw into his shoulder before he shouted again. "She is too pretty you're just not looking at it the right way."

"And what _is_ the right way?" Musshu glanced over the jacket again, checking to make sure that they hadn't been heard. Not sensing anyone, he continued. "I mean, you're being kinda vague about it all, so why don't you explain to me what you see that I don't."

"Well…" Naruto sighed, going back to the wall. "People talk about how big her forehead is, and it kinda reminds me how I would get teased. She deserved to be reminded that she's got a lot of other qualities that make her awesome, and that it's the potential that matters!"

"Potential?" Musshu blinked. He'd been thinking about how right Naruto had been about her forehead for a second that he'd almost missed most of what Naruto had continued to say. "What potential are you talking about?"

"Well, she's really smart, like _really _smart. I don't think that a lot of the teachers in the Academy know a lot of stuff she does. Plus, according to Kakashi-sensei, she has super awesome chakra control. She may not be fully developed like some older women are, but I'm pretty sure she'll grow into a very beautiful woman." Naruto said, nodding to himself. "Plus, she's got a lot of strength from hitting me all the time, and she'll only get stronger too. So…yeah, she's got a ton of potential that I just think other people miss."

"…that was surprisingly well thought out." Musshu mussed.

Naruto chuckled nervously. "Well, I would've stopped asking her out a long time ago if I didn't think of reasons why I liked her. I mean, yeah she hits me, but she has a lot of other stuff that outweigh it. Plus, I'm on her team. With enough time, we have to figure each other out enough that she'll stop hitting me at _some_ point in the future."

One can only hope.

"Whatever you say man, she's your teammate." Musshu muttered. "So what about old one eye out there?"

"That's Kakashi-sensei. He's kickass." Naruto said, feeling far more definitive about that after their conversation yesterday. "If it weren't for him, I wouldn't have been allowed to take home the scroll that let me summon you. Speaking of…" Naruto froze, chuckling nervously. "I…um…I kinda…lost the scroll."

"…eh?"

"Well, I had it in my other room, but after I went to sleep, I couldn't find it!" Naruto muttered, looking really nervous. "Before I called you here, I had looked all over my apartment for it short of flipping it over. I…I'm sorry." His head slowly bowed, scratching at the wall gently as he pressed his forehead to the drywall. "I must be a horrible summoner…I'm sorry."

Musshu wasn't sure what to say to that. On one hand, it was far from the truth; he should know seeing how he'd been the one to take it back to the summoning realm. On the other, this _was _a big deal and needed to be handled appropriately. Kami he was a hundred years too young to be trying to handle a problem like this. Still, the ball was his now, and he needed to act.

"Naruto." Hearing his name, the boy glanced back to Musshu. "Just so you know, I took the scroll home to the dragon realm. However!" Musshu growled, cutting off Naruto's relieved sigh curtly. "You need to take better care of scrolls like that. If someone else got ahold of it, what would you do? There would be _two _dragon summoners out there who could then fight each other. It'd be like getting someone who could copy you, only they might do it better then you. You need to be careful, okay?"

Naruto nodded slowly, sighing as he rubbed the bridge of his nose. "Alright, I can do that." Smiling at Musshu, he grinned. "Thanks for taking the scroll though. I'm glad to hear it's safe."

Chuckling despite himself, he grinned back. "Don't worry, that's what partners are for. You got our back, and we'll get yours. Speaking of, incoming sensei."

Darting down, Musshu hid himself once more as Naruto blinked and stared towards the window. A second later, Kakashi's head poked up and gave Naruto his traditional eye-smile. "Oi, Naruto, you almost done in there? Sasuke is waiting for you and Sakura to finish up."

"Almost done sensei! I was just…"

"Catching my breath." Musshu whispered helpfully.

"Catching my breath."

Tilting his head curiously, Kakashi shrugged. "Well, just come out when you're done. Sasuke is eager to be done with this."

"I didn't say anything like that." Sasuke said from outside the house.

"You sure? I swore I saw it on your face…oh well."

Naruto felt a bead of sweat roll down the back of his head at that, causing him to sigh. Behind him, Musshu popped up and chuckled. "I like your sensei Naruto, he's pretty cool."

"That's what I said." Naruto replied with a grin.

Humming softly, Musshu paused as something crossed his mind. Looking down at his hand, he pressed it on Naruto's face. Feeling Naruto blink in confusion, he ignored it as he focused on his hand. "Hey Naruto, can I borrow some chakra? There's some stuff I gotta do, but I need some help and…well you're our summoner and all."

"Eh? Oh sure." Naruto replied, slapping his hands into the traditional 'ram' seal to help channel some chakra.

With his hand on Naruto's cheek, he felt the way that Naruto's chakra rose to the surface as he channeled it. To his surprise, his whiskers stuck out straight in a near comical way once it came into contact with his body, the sheer volume of it causing him to blink rapidly like he'd been given a sudden shot of coffee. "Whoa…"

"Uh, is that enough, or do you need more?" Naruto asked, pausing in his channeling and glanced at Musshu.

"No, no that's good. I mean WOW that's a lot of chakra you got." Musshu muttered, flexing his hand as the blue sparks flittered about his skin and sunk in to be used later. "Yeah…that should last a bit. Although…I _might~_ need some more later, so why don't you summon me tonight and we'll talk then."

Naruto grinned, giving Musshu a thumbs up. "You got it. I'll see you later!"

Musshu grinned, returning the thumbs up before disappearing in a puff of smoke. Rolling his shoulders, Naruto grinned with a small crack of his knuckles. "Alright, time to finish this mission, dattebayo!"

* * *

Returning once more to the dragon realm, Musshu almost giggled from how giddy he now felt. He was turbo charged, electrified, and so energetic now! He was very, _very_ glad he'd left when he did, because the chakra he'd absorbed was now back on the surface and he was crackling like a bonfire; quite literally, seeing how he is a fire dragon.

Bouncing on his toes a bit, he glanced around. Amazingly, he was right back where he started earlier, only this time the issue he'd been having was now solved. Rubbing his hands together, he manipulated some of the chakra to his mouth and let it loose in a blue flame-like pattern that quickly spread across the surface of the water.

As it did so, it came into contact with its intended target. Rising and falling, it began to outline the thin pattern of something beneath the water, spreading out up and down the river until nearly seventy feet of submerged chakra-fire was 'burning' before him. Then, with a couple of bubbles, it began to move. Slowly at first, then with slightly increasing speed until it burst upwards out of the water and showered the surrounding riverbed with fine droplets of water. Shaking wildly, the 'flames' dispersed as a silver scaled dragon revealed itself.

The dragon was a bit less impressive in some ways than Shinryuu; the scales were far smoother, and the horns were not nearly as prominent. Despite the shorter horns, that was slightly made up for by the surprising amount of hair that he had; a rare trait for any dragon to have. With the slimmer, more streamline body though, Musshu was certain that the dragon before him could outswim, out speed, and out maneuver many other dragons. In fact, he'd heard many rumors that backed up these thoughts and theories quite accurately. Legends and tales of the current leader of the River Dragons, Haru.

With his calm, stone black eyes, Haru lowered himself to Musshu's level of sight. When he spoke, it was not with the earth shaking rumble and echo that Shinryuu's held, but a subtle ease that was smoother. "Hello there little one. What brings you to the edge of the river? Don't you know it's not safe to play near water?"

Musshu took several deep breaths, trying to make sure he didn't overdo it with all the energy that was _still _coursing through him. "I know, but I didn't come to pick a fight or anything, so I figured that would be…well something." Seeing the subtle quirk in Haru's brow, he continued. "I…made a friend named Ping. Me and him go way back…he _still_ owes me money too. Anyways, he once thought it was a good idea to pick a fight with a water dragon. Needless to say, it…wasn't his brightest moment. Or mine for that matter."

Haru chuckled, imagining what sort of mischief the two of them might've gotten into. "As a fire dragon, I'm almost certain that you would've remembered how many times we of the rivers have held back the flames from the forest before the first summoner came."

Musshu nodded. "I've been told a few things about that, but I can't really say that I understand much about that. I mean, it was so long ago, and so many dragons appear to have forgotten…sorry, that's a…touchy subject for you isn't it?"

"You too if memory serves me right." Haru muttered. Giving the young dragon a kind smile, he sighed softly. "So then, what brings an eager young fire starter like yourself to awaken me?"

Musshu slowly rubbed his hands together as he thought of what to say. "Well…you see, the thing is...we have a new summoner."

"I know."

"And Shinryuu-sama told me to – wait what? HOW?!" Musshu certainly hadn't mentioned it, so his response was quite a bit further from what he was expecting.

"…you're a red dragon, and I'm a silver dragon." Haru explained slowly. "I do not have to be the brightest scales to know that you could not have been the one to awaken me unless you had help from either a god or a human summoner." Glancing around, Haru raised an eyebrow. "Speaking of, where is the child? I would have expected to have noticed their presence already with my awakening, yet I cannot tell where they are."

Musshu squeaked, eyes wide and head quickly shooting down to the ground. He could feel Haru's eyes on him, and he swore he could feel the several emotions that Haru's face went through as he watched him squirm beneath his gaze. Confusion, thoughtfulness, disapproval, and…was that amusement? Either way, he was still in so much trouble.

"…you forgot to bring them here, didn't you?" A slow, hesitant nod. "Did you at least learn anything about them before you returned here?"

"Um…oh! Yes I learned a few thing, yes." Musshu said, glad he finally remembered something about the boy. "His name is Uzumaki Naruto, he's a shinobi, he mentioned saving someone-or-another, and has a team of…rather strange sounding people. To be honest, I worry about their sanity a bit."

Haru chuckled softly. "With humans, one finds that questioning their sanity can become quickly a moot point; especially when in regards to those who have taken up the shinobi practice. If they haven't changed all that much from a hundred years ago, then I'm certain that the strangeness has only increased."

"…about that." Haru paused, quirking his head as he listened to the small fire dragon. "When I was younger, I was told grand tales about humans. About how shinobi's were feared by those without similar training, and even with. There was tales of how the wandering clan of dragon summoners had proven themselves and that there was even talk of settling down in one of the newly founded villages. Well, while I was there, I got to look around, and it looked like they _did_ move to a village. And…I don't know why, but there's just something odd about Naruto that I can't put my claw on."

"What do you mean?"

"Well…he's blond." Musshu began, trying to remember all the details he could that were 'not normal' from what he remembered. "His eyes were a bright, bright blue, and he had weird marks on his cheeks. They looked like he'd drawn them on, but when I touched his face they were still there. Also, he didn't look to be older then twelve, and was living in a building alone. _Alone_. I know that humans and dragons are different, but I swore that humans were more paternal then to allow one of their brood to simply live on their own so young. And then there –"

"Did you ever consider that he may not have parents to raise him?" Haru asked, cutting him off.

Mouth opening and closing like a fish, Musshu suddenly felt a bit stupid. "Well, no. No I didn't. But-but then there was his chakra! It was…there was _so much_ and it…" He looked down at his hands. The crackling noise had long since died down, but he could still see the burning blue chakra beneath his skin flickering every so often. "He had enough chakra that I can probably wake another dragon up without having to go back to see him."

Haru hummed, thinking about it quietly. "Well, he sounds like quite the special boy then. I wonder what will become of him when the council looks him over." Seeing Musshu still staring at his hands, Haru decided to address that particular question that he'd just recalled. "That is why you woke me, correct?"

"Huh? Oh yeah, yeah that-that's why I woke you up." Musshu said, trying to downplay how distracted he was even as he chuckled nervously. "Um…Haru-sama?"

Haru paused again, the title still something new to him. "Yes?"

"Can…okay, this is gonna sound weird." Musshu muttered before taking a deep breath and bowed to Haru. "Can you please give me a ride to the mountain ranges? I need to continue my mission in waking the four dragon lords, and I…am still too young to fly."

Haru slowly placed his hands under his chin and hummed softly. Looking Musshu over a bit more, he winced as realization hit him. "…you haven't even hit your first molting cycle have you?"

"…I'm close. Should be maybe a month or two…or three. Hopefully." Musshu muttered, kicking at the dirt of the riverbank with a sigh. "I hope that won't be a problem for you or for –"

"It is of no concern to me your age. You are acting your age, and if you are the one who was called first, it is clear to me that your age may have made you the only one capable of being drawn out without…consequence."

Musshu winced, having heard of what happened to one who had attempted to summon one of the four bosses straight away. He…hadn't been a summoner for long, that had been certain.

Humming once more, Haru smiled and moved to circle around Musshu. Lowering himself, he slowly motioned for Musshu to climb on. Musshu, catching the motion and hit, grinned and scrambled up, gripping a few hairs as Haru wound up and all but launched himself up into the air towards the mountain range.

They had another dragon to awaken after all.

* * *

Shinryuu sat before the crevice of a canyon, sitting back and basking in the sun. He knew that he'd be felt soon enough. With the way his large presence moved, it'd be surprising if he'd managed to actually _sneak_ into a place such as this. Feeling a striking breeze brush over him, his eyes slowly opened as he glanced to the shadows. Just out of sight, with a small rumble, he could just make out the shape of another dragon just before their eyes opened and gleamed from the darkness.

"…so there's a new summoner then?"

With a slow, deliberate movement, he nodded. **"Yes. According to the young fire dragon Musshu, he has signed in the very last slot of our summoning scroll."**

"…and? What are you trying to say Shinryuu?"

"**I am getting to that. You never were one for waiting patiently, were you?"** Shinryuu asked, a mischievous look in his eyes as he recalled a time that felt like it had long since past.

"We're on opposites sides of the elemental table. Of course I'm not going to be nearly as patient as you." A flash of white, likely teeth, as the dragon growled at him fiercely. He paid it no mind though; they'd gone through similar enough things before to let him know that he had no real need to fear.

"**Still, you could stand to learn a thing or two. Even Musshu was able to show his own ability to remain calm while waiting for my responses. And besides, it's not like I take –"**

"You're getting sidetracked again."

"…**true."**

"…"

"…"

"…the boy? The…_summoner_."

"**Mm,yes. This boy it seems is rather lucky. Had he attempted this even a month from now he may have very well been killed from chakra exhaustion. As such, we'll need to train him, and to bring him to a point that summoning one such as yourself or I will be…detrimental to his health."** Shinryuu sighed, his eyes slowly raised to stare at the passing clouds.

"You say that like…wait, you aren't serious." He could hear the way the voice caught, trying to remain focused but failing at the realization of what he'd said.

"**I said nothing."**

"But you implied it. And you didn't deny it either."

"…"

"Kami help us."

Shinryuu's frown became more pronounced at that. **"We have done this ourselves. If anyone is to help us now, it will be this summoner."**

"Then may Kami have mercy on _him_."

Raising an eyebrow, Shinryuu slowly shook his head. **"Oh? Is that the reason you are not happy with the new summoner? Do you still harbor ill will towards the samurai?"**

"It was because of _him_ that much of this happened!" The growl at him early paled drastically as killing intent all but rolled off the dragon in waves. For all who remembered, the samurai was not a gentle topic; for this dragon in particular, it was a topic that brought blood to a quick boil as well as years of barely suppressed rage. "It was because of that arrogant, smug, sword stealing samurai that we –"

"**Calm yourself. We will deal with things of that nature later. Besides, it is more likely that the child is of shinobi ancestory."**

There was a hesitance to question, but he knew the dragon well enough to know that this tidbit of information would catch their attention only too well. "…are you sure?"

"**No. However, we will know soon enough."** Shinryuu shrugged. What manner of ancestry the boy had was none of his concern. However, with the way things had proven in the past, it may prove better for all involved if he was.

"Kukuku, perhaps…this might work out better than expected."

"**Perhaps it will."**

"Ah, such a wonderful thought. It is truly a shame that those of my clans are not considered for the council of four dragons. I would love to be able to see him when –"

"**There is nothing that holds you back from coming to this meeting. You are awake, and you have my personal invite."**

There was a pause after this statement, one that was not unexpected. This broke years of traditions, things that were ground into the very fiber of their knowledge. However, for this to work, he needed to play to her pride a bit to get her onto their side. It wouldn't do to have her coaxed against them. He was more than strong enough to take most if not any dragon alive, but even he was not foolhardy enough to take on several of the most powerful and dangerous dragons in all the dragon realm alone.

"What of the fire dragon? Will he not be displeased?"

"**Musshu is young. Any ill will he may have will likely be displaced by respect for those who he knows overpower and outrank him."**

"And what of…_that dragon? _You know that he won't want to sit still once he knows of this, and that he's going to be left out of our meeting."

"…**he will survive not being part of the decision. He lost his vote when he was cast into the pit of the mountain."**

"It won't hold him."

"**It's not meant to. Were we to try holding **_**him**_** back, we would have had him killed years ago and you know this."**

"…I hope you know what you're doing. For all of our sake."

"…**as do I. As do I…"**

* * *

AN: I love how Musshu has been turning out, as well as the random bits of insight I had written down about Sasuke and Sakura. I mean...how much character development did Sakura and Sasuke actually get after the Wave Arc? Sasuke _nearly died_ and Sakura thought he'd died. Naruto I can understand not learning quite as much seeing how his focus was on understanding his opponents and what their purpose in life was (thus the reference in this chapter) but the other two had their own stuff, so...what happened? I looked it over, and shockingly, it made me hate them less. Sasuke with the seal is an ass and a half, but before that point he was getting better. As for Sakura...she was pretty stagnant after we realized she was "damsel in distress" up until she decided she needed to fight for herself in the Forest of Death. _Then_ she started improving.

The part with Musshu and Naruto discussing Sakura was another thing that I thought of. For all that Naruto is and does, I can't see him just allowing someone to hit him like that and then going "Will you go out with me?" Yes, there are people crazy like that, but seeing how I don't get that mindset, I don't see how Naruto would. Then it hit me (...wait, is that a pun?); Naruto wouldn't look at Sakura simply as who she _is_, but as who she _could_ be. She could remain as the violent woman that we know her as, but Naruto sees her as growing out of it. When you consider that people who've either been through it before or seen it usually say "Don't worry they'll grow out of it" or "It's just a phase", you can kind of see how that logic would apply. I bet someone in the Naruto universe *coughIrukacough* probably told other people after his pranks that he'd grow out of it eventually, and Naruto figured that other kids his age would too.

Unfortunately, we know how _that_ turns out in the end...well, we know how it normally does. And I am not one for "normal", so we'll see.

Also, a new dragon hiding in the shadows! With plot points! And another two dragons not named! What is going to happen?!

Wouldn't you like to know? Yes. And you will, in time. Till the next chapter, Guru out!


	3. Chapter 3

...three 10,000 word chapters in 3 days? Don't get used to it. I did it for the word count, and to help me appease the dragon boss looking in my head telling me to get it out before the plot bunnies tried to mess with this story.

One does not simply mess with plot bunnies...heaven help those who do.

I don't own Naruto or the identity of some of the dragons here. I do own their personality and my own personal ramblings though, so ha!

* * *

**Who Walks Among Dragons**

_The wind whipped around his head as he flew through the air, a large smile on his face as the sunlight fell on him. It felt like the world was alight and all was well in life._

* * *

"Sweet glorious freedom!" Naruto shouted as he leapt from roof to roof, allowing himself a couple seconds hang time to really feel the falling motion before landing and sprinting to the next one. "Hahaha, suck it Sasuke! I totally finished the last houses before you!"

"Only because you ripped up _everything_ behind the walls too." Sasuke replied, rolling his eyes at Naruto's attitude. He was like this in every mission they took; he'd do it the way anyone else would, and then Naruto would try to one-up him. Surprisingly, Naruto's over the top method of finishing out the inside of the last house had worked, and Kakashi had allowed him to help Sakura. She hadn't been paying attention to what Kakashi was saying when he'd spoken to her, thinking he was yelling at Naruto, and let out a loud shriek when she found Naruto coming up the stairs with half the wall falling behind him. Needless to say, his head got one nasty wallop quite quickly.

Sasuke pled silence to any form of laughter upon hearing that, imagined or not.

"It needed to come down, and I was just the man to do it!" Naruto shouted, slamming a fist to his chest with a large grin.

"Naruto, calm down already." Sakura huffed as she watched him practically flip off any surface he could put his feet on in glee. "We get it, you did good. Now will you please stop with all the jumping? You're making me dizzy."

"Oh come on Sakura-chan! I'm not that – whoa jeez!" Naruto shouted, barely catching himself as he almost slipped and fell when his foot caught the very edge of a tile and slipped before he could apply chakra to it.

"…you were saying?" Sasuke said with a smirk. The glare he got in return was worth it.

Sakura on the other hand, had a better method of defusing the situation. "Naruto, didn't you say we were going to Ichiraku's for dinner?" She was going to have a _real_ meal afterwards, but he didn't need to know that.

Naruto's eyes brightened. "Oh yeah! Hehe, sorry, I was just lost in the moment." Bounding again to the furthest roof he could see, he turned back to them and waved them on. "Come on guys! We're losing light out and I want to beat the night rush!"

Both rolled their eyes, neither really believing that there was any sort of 'night rush' for a ramen stand, but they still followed after him. As they did so, Sakura glanced between Naruto and Sasuke before she finally decided to ask what was on her mind. "Um…Sasuke-kun? Why are we going to get ramen again?"

"Hn." Sasuke muttered, hiding a more embarrassed look. "The dobe said he'd pay for it, so we figured we'd humor him this once."

"Ah." Sakura sighed. Once the mission had been completed, things had suddenly turned into a whirl of activity; or rather, Naruto had been racing around shouting about how awesome he was and making her dizzy. When he'd suddenly kept yelling for them to follow him, she was worried he'd somehow gotten her to agree to a date or something like that until Sasuke jumped after him too. She'd 'trained' herself to have an automatic reaction to his date question, seeing how she was keeping herself for…later.

Watching their teammate and his ever bounding enthusiasm, they both shared a look. Both had an idea of what the other was thinking, but neither was sure how to say it without sounding harsh. Rather, Sakura didn't, Sasuke didn't really care since it was the truth. "Do you think the dobe even thinks about Nami no Kuni anymore?"

Sakura blinked, glancing to her crush with wide eyes at the question. Both because it was a question running through her own mind, and because Sasuke had just _initiated_ a conversation with her! Fan girl tendencies almost rose back to the surface, but Inner Sakura quickly smacked them down. _"This is my chance, sharrano!"_

"W-well…" Sakura stuttered as she glanced at Naruto and his jumping and hopping through the air. "I don't know. Sometimes I catch him staring out of Konoha, like he's thinking about it, but then he turns around and keeps acting like his normal self. It's like, he thinks about it, and then immediately pushes it down. It doesn't seem healthy to me."

"Maybe that's how he's dealing with it." Sasuke muttered, watching the big grin of their hyperactive teammate as he pointed and shouted to where the stand was. Sasuke's own hands gently brushed against some of the small pinpoint scars on his bod; his ever present memento of his brutal loss against Haku. "He said he would be a ninja in his own way, so him still being like he was before the mission might be his way of…proving he can still be 'him' while still being a ninja."

Sakura nodded, that logic sounding right to her mind. As she watched the blond bouncing on his heels as he waited for them, she silently wondered if she could do that herself were she in his shoes. If she were honest with herself, she likely couldn't. She certainly wasn't the same little girl who had left Konoha just over a month ago; she'd proved to herself that when things go down she can defend people and keep them safe with the help of her team. In a way it showed how their teamwork really did matter seeing how she could defend the target while Naruto and Sasuke did a full court press to take out the opposition.

Then again, both times she'd needed to protect Tazuna, there had only been two opponents. How would she fair against three or more attacking them? It wasn't something she wanted to admit, but the thought had kept her up some nights and caused more than a few nightmares of what could happen to her and her team. Even with the speed she'd added to her jutsu from having learned how to better control her chakra, she still had a long ways to go.

"Come on you guys, ramen calls!" Naruto shouted, finally darting into the stand. To their shock, they heard a small shout of surprised followed by Naruto falling back as he ran into someone. "Ow…what hit me?"

"I think the better question is who did _you_ hit dobe." Sasuke replied, stepping around Naruto who glared up at him as he picked himself up. Pushing the cloth up, he raised an eyebrow as he looked down at the victim of an overeager Naruto. "Kiba? What are you doing here?"

Kiba shook his head as he picked himself up. "Well, I _was_ done getting something to eat, but then I ran into someone." Glancing around Sasuke, Kiba grinned in his usual feral-like manner. "Looks like the baka still doesn't know how to look before he leaps."

"Oi, who you calling a baka!" Naruto shouted.

"You, baka." Kiba said, knowing he could continue to push Naruto's buttons all day long if he wanted. It was rather fun in his opinion.

Sasuke in the meantime, looked Kiba over with a touch of scrutiny. It had been several months since he'd last seen the Inuzuka, and from the look of him he was…less than impressed. He still had that wild look in his eyes, and from the way he was goading Naruto on he was still cocky as he'd been in the Academy. On the other hand, he was dressed down today, not wearing his fur jacket like normal and was only wearing a grey short-sleeved shirt with his regular dark-blue pants. Likely he'd stopped here on his way back from a training session, and they'd just gotten lucky enough to run into him.

"Naruto, we didn't come here to start a fight, remember?" Sakura, of all the people to diffuse this situation, intervened to prevent it from becoming a small fight in front of the stand. She didn't want to get kicked out before she'd even gone in after all.

"Eh? Oh right! Ramen!" Naruto shouted, sidestepping Kiba as he hopped onto the stool and shouted back to Teuchi. "Oi! Two beef ramen please!"

"Coming right up Naruto!" Teuchi shouted back, having already started the order upon seeing one of his top customers heading in.

Kiba blinked at how quickly he'd been ignored, the whiplash causing him to actually take a moment to recover from. Grinning, he stepped back into the stand and sat next to Naruto. Messing with Naruto was something he rarely got to do nowadays, though he was also curious to see how he and his team had faired recently seeing as they had _Naruto_ on their team. The teasing was more in good fun than anything else.

"So Naruto, how've things been?" Kiba said, watching as Naruto kicked his feet in eager anticipation.

"Hehehe, I've been great!" Naruto all but shouted, watching as Ayame and Teuchi glanced at him as well. He had a small audience here now, so he might as well indulge a bit. "We've been learning all kinds of awesome stuff, and we've taken two C-ranked missions now!"

"Really?" Kiba raised an eyebrow at that. His team had taken one themselves, but two? That was mildly impressive. "What kind of missions were they."

"Well –"

"Guard duty and glorified demolitions crew." Sasuke said, cutting Naruto off.

Naruto blinked and scowled at Sasuke. "Hey, I was telling what happened!"

Sasuke rolled his eyes. "We would've been here all day if you'd told it. Besides, you aren't the only one who was on those missions; we were there too, remember? And really, if they want to know more, they'll ask."

Naruto silently fumed while Inner Sakura cheered at the fact that Sasuke had indirectly referenced her. Luckily for Naruto, Kiba was somewhat interested, although it was more of a 'rub it in your face' type of interested. "Really? Heh, that's pretty cool. We've been on a C-ranked mission ourselves. We had to scout out and take down a camp of bandits. Our team really got to show off our stuff on that one. Kurenai-sensei was really proud of how well we did."

Team 7 shared a brief look with each other, almost as though they were all debating on whether they should tell Kiba about how their guard duty mission _really_ went. Since Sasuke was between the two, he suddenly became the improvised center of their inner debate. Taking a stand as 'leader of the group', he slowly shook his head. Kiba didn't need to know, and really he didn't feel like divulging any information about what had happed; keeping a few surprises for later might be useful.

"That's great Kiba." Sakura said, smiling politely at the wild boy. "Hm, if I remember, your team has Shino and Hinata from our class on it, right?"

Kiba perked up at the curious attention, just as willing as Naruto was to tell his story. "Yeah, that's my team alright. Heh, Shino's pretty cool when you get past how quiet he is. Plus his ability to track stuff with kikaichuu made him really useful on the mission. I mean, I can get a good track on scents once I have them, but with his mini scouts Shino was able to actually find the camp before I ever caught scent of them. And Hinata…well, she's been getting better and stronger, so she was able to tell us more about them all before we had to ambush them. It made taking their weapons away before they could retaliate almost too easy."

While Kiba had missed the pause Team 7 had shared, Sasuke and Sakura were able to notice Kiba's small pause much more clearly. Sakura, having more curiosity then Sasuke about the matter, spoke up. "Hinata did all that? So, she's been getting better about her introverted nature since the Academy?"

Kiba winced slightly at that, fiddling with some leftover chopsticks in front of him. "Well…yeah, sorta. She's come a long way, and she's definitely stronger then when she was in the Academy,but…"

Even Naruto wasn't dense enough to miss _that_ pause. "But what?"

"She still freezes up during some missions." Kiba admitted, scratching his head with a worried look. "Of all my team, she's probably got some of the best sensory abilities, but she doesn't like hurting people so she hesitates to hit people when it's really not good to. If Kurenai-sensei hadn't cast that genjutsu on the guy, she might've gotten really hurt."

Naruto frowned, a small reminder of Haku popping into his head. Despite not liking to hurt or kill, he'd pushed himself to fight him and Sasuke, even though he didn't use lethal methods to do so. In a way, it sounded a bit similar to Hinata's situation; put into a place where she was doing something she didn't really want to because she wasn't that kind of person. Or at least, that's what he thought. He didn't actually know Hinata all that well, so he was probably the worst person to ask in judging her character. He barely remembered seeing her once or twice at the Academy, her strange shyness standing out surprisingly.

Before he could delve further into that, the amazing distraction of ramen was placed before him and he put that thought on hold. It was time for deliciousness beyond compare. "Itadakimasu!"

Sasuke and Sakura shook their heads at how easy it was to distract the blond, and returned their attention to Kiba. Sasuke decided to delve a bit deeper this time. "Isn't Hinata a member of the Hyuuga clan?"

"Hm? Oh yeah, she is."

"So doesn't that mean she has the Byakugan?" Sasuke asked, remembering hearing stories about how the doujutsu (eye technique) was considered the competitive equal to the Sharingan (copy-wheel eye).

"Yeah, that's how she knew about the layout of the bandit's camp before we got there." Kiba had a proud smile on his face despite the rather downgrading statements about her taijutsu just a moment before. "Her eyes are amazing. Complete view of everything in her sight, and she was able to point out stuff even Shino had missed. Kurenai-sensei thought that was pretty awesome too."

Naruto paused in mid bite, cutting it off to quickly chew and swallow before speaking. "If she's so good, why did you make it sound like she wasn't that good on the mission?"

Kiba blinked and scowled at Naruto. Naruto had no idea what he'd just said that had angered the Inuzuka so, but he had a feeling that it was a rather touchy subject.

"I didn't say that _dobe_. I said she froze up in the middle of the fight and almost got hurt." He said, his hackles raised and ready to grapple with Naruto should he continue to verbally poke at him and his team. "She's got some of the best taijutsu on the team, but she doesn't like hurting people with it, and she hesitated before actually hitting them which almost made them hurt her."

"If she doesn't like to hurt people, why did you have her in the middle of the fight then?" Naruto asked, trying to wrap his head around what appeared to be a ridiculous concept.

"Because it was her idea!" Kiba snarled, not catching the flinch from Naruto at his shout. "She's trying to prove herself, but she keeps getting hurt. The thing is, we know she can! In team practice we've seen her give a hundred and ten percent every time. I know she can do it, Shino knows she can too, but when it comes time to act she –" Kiba bit his bottom lip, quickly forcing to calm himself. "You know what, I said too much. It was nice seeing ya'll again."

All but storming out, Kiba didn't see the looks Team 7 gave him as he left. Sasuke could see how Kiba had felt he'd given too much information seeing how they really didn't _need_ to know it, but he couldn't see how it would matter much right now. Sakura felt for Hinata, having an idea of what was likely going through the other girl's head. Unlike Hinata, she wasn't nearly as confident in her combat skills, which was why she stayed back; for Hinata to be willing to jump into the middle of any sort of battle spoke volumes about her courage and her inability to harm others told that her gentle nature could be her downfall.

Naruto on the other hand, had too many things running through his mind. With so much input of information from Kiba, his mind wildly latched on to whatever stood out most in his mind. "…wait, they have team practice?"

Sakura and Sasuke stared at Naruto, unsure how dense he was being at the moment. Kiba had been going on about his teammate, and telling them all kinds of personal information, and _that _was what he'd caught? As they thought about it though, they started to see some sense in it though. In all honesty, they also felt that it would be better for them if they forgot everything that Kiba said and acted like it didn't happen for now. Kiba was likely embarrassed by his actions, and it wouldn't be nice to expose that…unless he did something stupid enough to get it out of them.

In the meantime, they had a new topic to discuss.

"…Kakashi-sensei hasn't had us do any kind of team practice." Sakura said, mussing about this new revelation.

Sasuke blinked, thinking back to their first team meeting. "Which is weird, since his first lesson for us was teamwork…"

Naruto scratched his cheek, looking from where Kiba had been to them. "Maybe we're supposed to just do it on our own?" Seeing their curious looks, he explained. "Kiba didn't say Kurenai-sensei had them doing the training, he just said they were doing it. So…maybe they just decided to do it. You know? Show initiative and stuff."

There was a heavy silence in the stand as the words sunk in. It made sense to them in a way, seeing how Kakashi wouldn't always be there for them; the first battle against Zabuza in Nami no Kuni was a clear indicator of that. It would also let them trust each other more, since they wouldn't be leaning on Kakashi's instruction all that much. Ironically, it was Kakashi's first less that was bringing them to this conclusion.

Now they were learning the lesson underneath the lesson.

"Damn it Kakashi-sensei!" Sakura yelled as she gripped her head, everything finally clicking for her.

Sasuke scowled, silently wishing he could smack his head against a hard surface. It was _obvious_ that's what jonin instructors were meant to do _now_. After all, a dependency on their sensei could be the end of them if they weren't weaned off of them; in Kakashi's case it was more cold turkey from the get go to give them absolute freedom. Damn hindsight being twenty-twenty.

Naruto on the other hand, had another thought altogether. "We should totally prank him."

Both of his teammates slowly turned to look at him. "…what?"

"Yeah, think about it!" Naruto said, a mischievous look in his eyes as he explained his thoughts. "Kakashi-sensei didn't tell us about this, but he _is_ our sensei too. So, if he wants us to train as a team on our own, we'll need a…training dummy. And Kakashi-sensei is so much stronger than us, if we get even _one_ hit on him that means we're that much closer to doing it all the time!" Rubbing his hands together, he cackled maniacally. "Plus, it'll be sweet, sweet revenge."

There was a small silence between them as they processed this. Under normal circumstances, Naruto's idea would have been turned down post-haste. However, with their reeling emotions from the discovery and desire to cause some havoc for their sensei, it became the one and only option they could think about.

"I'm in." Sasuke said, his mind already thinking of several things that might be useful.

"I'm in too!" Sakura replied, though only after she'd confirmed that Sasuke was behind it too.

"Ossu!" Naruto shouted, digging into his ramen once more. Finishing it in record time, he wiped his mouth and grinned. "Alright, let's head to the training grounds and get started then!" Just as he was about to go though, he paused and glanced at the two. "Wait…did you two order anything?"

Hearing a growl from both of their stomachs, Sakura chuckled nervously. "Um…how about we finish eating first, and _then_ we'll head to the training grounds?"

"…agreed."

"Agreed." Naruto said, nodding happily. Turning back around, he grinned as his second bowl was put before him. He'd almost forgotten about that what with Kiba's explosiveness earlier.

Teuchi, for his part, stayed quiet about all this. He knew they were in _way _over their heads trying to prank Kakashi, but it might be fun to hear how things went for them. Plus, they were still buying ramen from him, so who was he to deny his customers his roof to plan under? It was a good day to be him.

* * *

Musshu poked his head out of Haru's hair as they flew, enjoying the feeling as they whipped towards the mountain range. He could hear the boom of thunder, but at the moment he didn't care. He felt too much was going his way, and he was happy.

"First flight in a long time?" Haru asked, eye glancing back to Musshu. From the way the small dragon kept letting his whiskers flap in the wind, he was enjoying the flight almost as much as a newly hatched dragon. It was rather amusing to watch, especially for a fire dragon who were known more for being aggressive then for being free-spirited. He was young though, so it was likely just until he molted once or twice before that took root.

"Yeah it is." Musshu said, throwing his hands into the air. "I'm kind of the world! Mwahaha, bow before me little – oh snap!" A quick grab with his tail kept him from being thrown off as he pulled himself back up to Haru's neck. Hearing a chuckle, he pouted. "Oh come on, it's not _that_ funny."

"You should see yourself sometime." Haru replied. In the distance, a glimmer of something within the clouds caught his attention. "Ah, we're almost there."

Musshu perked up, looking down at the mountains in confusion. "Where? I don't see where they are. How do you –" Hearing a sudden crack of thunder, his head whipped up. Eyes widening, he stared at the scene before him with his jaw dropping rather swiftly. "…oh."

In front of them, a huge thunderhead was looming before them over the mountain range. As the lightning arced within it, the form of a serpent-like entity appeared. Unless his eyes betrayed him, the dragon's forehead was smooth and hornless; not often a common trait among dragons except for one or two. Its body was also larger in body then it was in length, making it a far more imposing creature of size rather than simply in coiled length. Towering above them, it was clear that this dragon was powerful, and that this awakening was going to be a bit more…destructive then the others he'd done.

"Raiu. A dragon of thunder, and youngest master of Shiroirai (White Lightning) in a generation." Haru whispered respectfully. Glancing back to Musshu, he gave him a confident look as he motioned to the cloud. "You ready?"

"…no?" Musshu was _not_ ready, but he had a feeling that he didn't really had a choice; he was starting to lose Naruto's chakra boost, and if he didn't act now he might be unable to wake Raiu until later that evening.

"You'll be fine." Haru coiled in the air, bracing himself as he aimed for the center of the cloud. "Hold on tight, it might get a bit bumpy. And don't forget to wake Raiu up before we leave, or else we'll have to do it again!"

Before Musshu could say anything, Haru launched himself into the cloud. The unexpected jolt caused Musshu to be nearly launched off, and he wound up hanging from Haru's mane as he screamed from the change in velocity. Then again, few people _wouldn't_ after a change like that one.

As they raced into the cloud, bolts of lightning arched around them, coming close at times, but never quite hitting Haru as he fluidly 'swam' around them and delved towards the center of it. At the epicenter, a particular glow was present, which Haru figured was the sleeping form of Raiu. "Now Musshu!"

Still screaming his lungs out, Musshu barely registered the shout as he took a deep breath. Letting the chakra slip out, he screamed again with the blue flames leaking from his mouth as Haru flew them around the stationary dragon in the sky to allow the chakra to wrap around it much like it had with Haru. Unlike with Haru, the flame-like chakra became wilder upon contact with the dragon, dancing and leaping across its form as it quickly spread over it. With the chakra completely encompassing it, the cloud around it began to become even more volatile. Thunder and lightning cracked around them faster, and the smell of ozone increased exponentially.

"…time to go." Haru whispered, diving down towards the mountains. With all the lightning in the air, he was practically a bull's-eye in the middle of it all. Water conducted too much for his liking, and with Musshu on his back that only made this a more precarious situation. He'd avoided them easier before because he hid himself in the water of the cloud. With all the lightning crackling around them though, he knew better then to press his luck against the probability of getting struck by lightning.

Upon reaching the mountains point, he realized that there were no caves for him to take refuge in. Cursing lightly to himself, he began racing through the spike-like protrusions of stone that littered the path between where he was and where one of the few caves he knew for certain was. Running the mountains like a gauntlet, he winced upon hearing cracks of lightning striking the stones around him as he moved. The stones were set there by other cloud dragons as a method of taming their lightning so that they would better understand how to aim their lightning at things other than simply the tip-most point of an object. Raiu was certainly one of the better shots, but with the awakening he had a few seconds before the lightning become more instinctive in shooting him down through the rocks.

Hearing the roar of thunder that echoed through the sky as Raiu's awakening completed Haru put on a final burst of speed and barreled into the cavern. Coiling quickly within the cave, he waited for Raiu to finish the dangerous 'morning wake up' routine he'd seen only once before when their last summoner had arrived. While always impressive, it still caused him to wonder where all that vibrant energy _came_ from.

A moment later, he felt a shaking hand touch the top of his head as Musshu pulled himself up. "…what…was that?"

Haru sighed, resting on his paws as he looked upwards. "_That_ was evasive maneuvers to avoid being hit by one of the most dangerous dragons I've ever had the pleasure of meeting. Just be glad waking up throws off one's aim. Being electrocuted in the middle of flight doesn't tend to help when gravity keeps calling you back down."

"R-right. Thanks for that by the way." Musshu said, chuckling nervously. The idea of being a Musshu pancake wasn't very appealing to the young dragon. Scampering to the cave entrance, he stared up at the storm above them. "Is…this how Raiu _normally_ wakes up? It seems kinda…violent."

"No, normally it's quite a bit calmer." Haru admitted. Continuing on, he explained. "When a dragon is awakened from a deep slumber though, some of them can be a bit…crabby. Especially when they're younger."

"I didn't snap _this_ much when I woke up!" Musshu said indignantly, throwing his hands out as an indicator of what 'this much' was.

Haru chuckled patting Musshu on his head with one of his whiskers. "Of course not. You're still young, and your fire abilities have yet to awaken fully as you have not molted yet. Raiu on the other hand…has molted, and has gained a startling proficiency with lighting over the years."

Musshu shivered, nodding slowly as he stared up at the way the lightning arched around said dragon. "…I've heard it said she's a prodigy."

Haru snorted. The very idea of a dragon prodigy was ridiculous in his eyes, and was in the eyes of many others. "There's no such thing. There's only those who have talent, and those _use_ their talents. Those who say that Raiu's a prodigy simply don't have the same talent used when unleashing hell with lightning strikes. It's likely they do have their own talents…it's just not the same as Raiu's."

"Oh. Well, that makes sense I guess." Musshu said softly. Staring down at his own hands, he slowly glanced at Haru again. "What…what's _my_ talent?"

Haru lazily glanced at him, chuckling softly. "Do I look like a mind reader to you? The only reason I know of Raiu's skill is because I've seen them before. Give yourself some time Musshu. You'll see what your skills are, and will learn to mold them into the form you desire. Be patient though. All good things take some time to grow before they can be used correctly."

Musshu sighed, sitting down slowly and flopped onto his back. "I know…I just feel so useless now that we have a summoner. I mean, what am I going to bring to the table? Raiu is god-like powerful, you're smart, Shinryuu's wise, and…I'm just not sure how I'll help."

Haru raised a brow at how he glanced over their final member. Clearly he'd heard the rumors, and was either still holding onto the grudge all fire dragons had, or was so terrified of the very thought that he simply couldn't speak without quickly regressing and pushing it to the side. It was fascinating to see how he was handling it to be sure, but with the council meeting preparing in just a few hours, he was going to need to super speed his way through this mental block. Otherwise, he'd end up just as useless as he felt he was now. Still, that was his problem. He'd work through it eventually.

Hearing the thunder die down, Haru peaked out at the sky as the sun began to peak out from behind the clouds as Raiu began circling around and moving them away. He swore he heard a giggle, which caused him to smile. With no lightning raining down on him, he glanced down at Musshu and motioned him to climb aboard. Once the small dragon had scurried his way up, he once more launched himself into the air, flying up to the carefree Raiu as he let out a bellow of a greeting.

Hearing the noise, Raiu paused and flipped around. Bright blue scales caught the light and gleamed brightly. If one looked at them from the glint of the sun, they almost seemed white in how they soaked up and reflected the light around them. Blue eyes glimmered with a playfulness as Raiu whipped around and raced towards them. Pulling up just short of them, Raiu grinned happily. "Haru!"

"Hello Raiu." Haru smiled back, his tail brushing against Raiu's in a traditional flight bound greeting.

"It's good to see you my fellow cloud mover!" Raiu said with a giggle before circling around him. "So, what's with the wakeup call? Did I miss something big?" Seeing Musshu slowly peaking over Haru's head, Raiu perked up even more. "Oh WOW you have a red dragon?! That is so cool! How did you find him? He's kinda small. Is he close to molting yet? Ooh, does he know where the –"

"Raiu. Calm down, and listen to me." Raiu's mouth snapped shut at Haru's calm tone, bowing slightly as Haru continued. "Now, first off, this is Musshu. Say hi Musshu."

"Uh, h-hi."

Haru nodded, glad that Musshu didn't seem put off by the questions. "Now, we're being called together for council at the top of Shinryuu's mountain."

"Shinryuu? He's awake? But why would he be awake? I mean, nothing big enough for a council involving him has happened since the last summoner." Head tilted to the side, a thought seemed to be racing behind Raiu's bright blue eyes. "Hey wait a second…how'd you wake me up anyways?"

"Human chakra."

"Human…chakra." Raiu said, sounding disbelieving for a second. Musshu resisted the urge to palm his face as he watched the spectacle. Even _he_ had gotten it faster than this! Then again, with great power comes…well generally a lack of general study in other areas. Finally, the light bulb clicked on. "Holy crap are you serious?! You don't mean we have a summoner do you?"

"Yes, that's what I'm saying." Haru said, nodding slowly as he watched Raiu suddenly become a whirling thunderbolt once more; babbling in excitement and zipping around Haru in circles that would make any other dragon dizzy in a few moments. After waiting for Raiu to make the obvious connection that there was more to hear, Haru finally spoke. "We'll be heading to meet with Shinryuu soon. Musshu is going to bring the human to our realm as soon as he can after the boy summons him again."

Musshu silently wished Haru hadn't said it like that, as Raiu _didn't_ miss the implication of what he'd just said. "Again? You mean you've already been summoned? What's it like? Is it as cool as they say? What's the summoner like? Are they cool or cute? Tall or short? Come on man, details!"

Gripping his head from the rapid fire questions, Musshu slowly shook his head. "Could you repeat the question? I wasn't able to keep track of all of them since you talked so _fast_."

Haru held up a paw to stop Raiu from going into it again. "Enough. We'll all find out together once he's brought here. In the meantime, we should head on our way to meet with Shinryuu. Musshu still has one more dragon he needs to awaken before we can begin."

Musshu paled at that, scratching his head slowly. "Are-are you sure?" He squeaked, feeling only too nervous about having to go out and do something like that. "I mean…we don't _need_ to wake 'em all up right? There's three main dragons with you two and Shinryuu, and I…well I can fill a part if need be. I'm small and young, but there's stuff I can contribute."

"True, there is a lot you can contribute." Haru replied, keeping his tone even and soothing so as to help Musshu calm himself. "However, none of us have the experience with a summoner. While Shinryuu is the closest, we'll need someone who knows the inner workings of it all so we can adequately teach him what the ins and outs of our summoning includes."

"If he survives the first couple tests." Raiu mumbled, also knowing who they were referring to. The dragon was known to be efficient…if not downright scary and near bloodthirsty at times. "Yeah…we'll have to see how it all works out."

"Agreed." Haru said, nodding slowly. Glancing back at Musshu, he sighed at the look on his face. Clearly he could now see that Musshu was one of the 'frightened masses' rather than 'angry'. "Don't worry, we'll stand by you when it's time to actually speak, so there's no need to be frightened."

"I'm calm, I'm calm." Musshu said, mostly to himself. He was _not_ calm, but for what they were going to do, he needed to be. "Alright just…gotta keep cool. Play it cool. Yeah…I can be cool."

"You're a fire breathing red flying lizard." Raiu said with a deadpanned expression. "Oh yes, you are _so_ able to be cool."

"Dragon!" Musshu hissed, his tongue sticking out as he did so. "And I'll have you know that I can be oh so cool if I want to!"

"Prove it!"

"I will!"

Haru quirked his head at the display, noting Raiu snickering. As his questioning glance, Raiu's eyes rolled playfully. "He'll be fine now. Come on, let's go meet our summoner!"

With a hoot and a holler, Raiu raced through the sky towards the awaiting plateau where Shinryuu was waiting. As he followed, albeit at a slower pace, he heard Musshu scurrying about as he mumbled and grumbled about what Raiu had said.

"I'll show them cool…I can be cool…the coolest! So cool I'll be hot. Yeah, like spitfire. No wait, that's not cool at all. Hm…I need a cool fire sounding thing."

Chuckling despite himself, Haru lazily allowed himself to continue his glide as he ignored Musshu's indignant shouts after hearing his chuckle.

* * *

Kiba felt like a complete tool. Slapping his head repeatedly as he stormed away from Ichiraku's, he couldn't stop going over what he'd said and done when Team 7 had shown up. It had come out so easily, and then he'd just snapped at Naruto when he'd accused him…okay it was less accused and more Naruto asking a question, but still!

Finding a bench nearby, he quickly stomped over to it and sat down, hands pressing against his head as he tried to calm down and think it through. It was a trick his mother had once told him to do when his emotions got out of control and he had a chance to step back and review. She had then shown that she didn't always follow this practice, but then he was the most likely candidate for clan leader, so he figured that _he_ should learn it if nothing else.

The Academy had been a pack of kids crammed into a small room and forced to learn together. Even from the young age, Kiba had recognized the mentality that they all had as being similar to his own family's at times, while mixing in their own family practices. No one looked at Mizuki or Iruka as a true alpha enough to respect them and follow them into anything without grumblings or bemoaning though, so that left the other kids in class. Who was it that if another was told to jump they'd ask 'how high?'

Uchiha Sasuke.

Despite this though, he wasn't truly an alpha. He forfeited this by being a loner, his lone wolf mentality making it so that even though he naturally held several good qualities as a leader, he failed at doing so because he rarely paid attention outside himself. As such, Sasuke _wasn't_ class alpha. Regrettably, Kiba had quickly realized that his class was without a true pack leader early on, and had tried on a few occasions to remedy this by being a pack leader, only to realize he still needed fine tuning to be that person.

There was another though, one who almost could be, but lacked tact and much of the other skills needed to be the alpha they needed. Uzumaki Naruto. Because he lacked the skills and tact, he was viewed most often as the class omega; the bottom of the food chain laughing stock that others viewed only in a bad light. He and a few other kids had grown a bit fond of his pranks, and sometimes would follow his lead after being 'punished' by Iruka to go do something else. Hooky usually got him in trouble later, but at that moment he was perfectly fine with it. He's jokes and many of his other stunts also unified the class in laughing or mocking him, which didn't do well for his image. Kiba himself was more than certain that he'd be Hokage before that dobe would ever get close.

Sakura on the other hand, was a wild card. She followed Sasuke like a beta; a silent second in command who would voice what Sasuke wanted, and help push things around with his silent guidance to make it get done. He'd seen a few of the looks he'd given her, even if she hadn't. Sasuke _wanted _to ask certain things, but he knew he could wait because Sakura would do that for him. It was almost scary how well he could read her now, considering he'd avoided his fan girls like the plague before they'd graduated.

'_Alright, so I was contending with two of them…good to know.'_ Kiba thought to himself. Naruto wasn't the problem, it was the other two. Naruto had just asked the right question at the wrong time. Being wound up by the other questions, he'd obviously snapped at Naruto because it was the easy way out; Naruto had been the easy outlet before, so why wouldn't he have seen him like that now?

It wasn't the _right_ thing to do of course, which made Kiba angrier at himself. As one trying to be a pack leader, snapping like that wasn't what he was supposed to do; he needed to keep his calm, focus, and above all else keep control of his emotions. He…still had plenty of trouble with that.

Then there was his question. _"If she doesn't like to hurt people, why did you have her in the middle of the fight then?"_ Such an innocent Naruto question, but there was something else behind it. His tone was all too aware, and his eyes had held a sharp quality that he hadn't seen before. Why did it bother him the way he'd asked that question? It was Hinata's choice of course, that's why.

And yet still…why?

Shaking his head again, he heard a small whimper from next to him. Glancing down, he blinked as he saw Akamaru sitting next to him. Cursing under his breath, he patted the spot next to him for Akamaru to jump up and join him. The small dog barked loudly, leaping up and quickly hopped onto his lap. Leaning back, Kiba let Akamaru stand on his chest, looking at him curiously.

"Yeah, yeah, I know, Ichiraku's sucks because they don't let dogs in." Kiba chuckled, scratching Akamaru's ear gently. With a small sigh, he let his head roll back to look up at the sky. "…what am I gonna do Akamaru? I mean…you heard me. I sounded like such an idiot in there."

Akamaru whined softly, gently scratching his shirt before yipping at Kiba in what one might've said was a comforting manner.

"I know boy, it's just…I know better." He scratched his cheek, he grumbled as he sat up. "I guess I should go apologize to Naruto for yelling at him. Don't really _want_ to, but it couldn't hurt to –"

"Hey Kiba."

Kiba blinked, raising his head before raising an eyebrow at the people standing in front of him. The fourth person behind them he didn't recognize, but the three people directly in front of him he could definitely remember; Shikamaru, Ino, and Choji, some of his old classmates who'd clearly graduated by the look of their headbands. "Oi, what are you guys doing here?"

"We're on our way to get come barbeque. Asuma-sensei's treat. You want to come?" Shikamaru said, getting an indignant grunt from Asuma.

Blinking at the random offer, Kiba grinned and nodded. "Sounds sweet! Let's go." Hearing Akamaru whine softly, he chuckled softly. "Yeah I know, but I didn't have a lot of money for any snacks then. If they're paying, who am I to say no?"

"Snacks? Need some?" Choji asked, holding out a bag of chips to Kiba.

"Hey thanks Choji." Kiba said, taking a couple and munching on them as he walked with them. As he chewed on them, he glanced at them from the corner of his eye. "So, what's been up with you guys lately? I haven't heard from you in…well, since the Academy honestly."

"We've been alright." Shikamaru shrugged, his slumped over posture still as lazy-looking as ever. "We've taken a couple of missions lately that were real easy, especially since the exam is coming up soon."

Kiba perked up at that. "Oh? So your sensei told you guys too?"

As Kiba glanced back at Asuma, the man chuckled softly. "What? Do you think I would tell my students about the Chunin Exams? I'm not really going to let them walk right past that without even knowing it was coming."

"That, and it'd have been a hassle to keep Ino from yelling at him if he did forget." Choji supplied helpfully.

"Hey, I'm not that bad guys." Ino huffed, crossing her arms indignantly. "Seriously, you guys make me sound like I whip you around or something."

"If you had the physical strength, you _would_ whip us around." Shikamaru countered, getting Ino to squawk a bit at that. "Then again, you'd probably find it as troublesome as me to do that, seeing how we _are_ still training…even if it's not always what you're expecting us to do."

"Yeah, because being reminded that Choji can basically eat food for extra chakra reserves is totally a comforting thought." Ino grumbled. While a part of her wondered if techniques like that could get her to be thinner, she knew enough to know that Choji had a tendency to overeat a bit more then he needed to seeing how his reserves would be fine when he'd do so.

Right now though, they were at the barbeque place, and for a post training pick-me-up it was one Choji had earned this time. Hearing him give a whoop that would've made Naruto proud of the other food enthusiast, Ino turned to Kiba. "Hey, have you seen Naruto or his team around? They disappeared a while back, and it's been nearly impossible to hear anything about them."

"Hm?" Kiba asked, blinking at the question. "Well…I saw them today before I met with you guys –"

"YOU WHAT?!"

"…and the last I saw of them I was leaving Ichiraku."

Ino twitched slightly at this information, making Kiba silently wonder if her shaking hands were her attempt to keep from jumping on him and strangling him. After she took a second to calm down, she stared at Asuma with a torn look. On one hand, she clearly wanted to go look for Team 7; on the other hand, she'd clearly promised the team that she'd eat with them.

Her decision was decided for her as Choji all but dragged his teammates into the restaurant and shouted for them to get a booth for five. Kiba and Asuma briefly stared at the display for a second before they both chuckled. Glancing at each other, Kiba raised an eyebrow before shrugging at the man's curious gaze.

Before he could join Choji in the feast of meat, Asuma spoke up. "So, you met Kakashi's kids huh? How were they doing?"

Kiba paused, glancing back once more at the bearded jonin. "Uh, they seemed to be alright. They all seemed normal enough, though Naruto only ordered two bowls of ramen. Hm…maybe he was paying?"

Asuma, rather than chuckling at Kiba's attempt at a joke, sighed softly. "Good to hear. I was worried a bit. It seems they're doing just fine though."

_This_ most definitely had Kiba's full and undivided attention. "Huh? Why would you be worried about them? I mean, yeah they're probably the most dysfunctional team ever thought up, but they seemed to be working well for themselves." Kurenai had never seemed to poke her nose into Asuma's students affairs whenever they left to go – ehem – 'discuss' things. So why would Asuma, even if indirectly, do just that? It didn't make sense. Unless… "Did something happen?"

Were Kiba like Shikamaru, Asuma might've cursed his luck about how the kid had basically outplayed him. However, a Shikamaru Kiba was not, which meant that he didn't know if he had to worry about dropping a few hints for him to put his nose to and follow. Knowing an Inuzuka though, he would likely need to just to let Kiba follow the trail and find out for himself.

"Well, that depends." Asuma said slowly, rolling his cigarette in his mouth as he thought of how to word this. "Did they tell you about their latest mission?"

"Um, which one?" Kiba frowned, vaguely remembering that they'd brought up having taken two mission before he'd proudly told them about the one Team 8 had been on. The second was easy enough to remember with how they'd put it, but the other was a bit more difficult. "The…glorified demolition job, or the other one?"

Asuma raised his eyebrow at that. "Two huh? Wow, didn't think Kakashi would give them another C-rank so close to the exams. Gotta admit, the guy's got some stones with that kinda choice."

Kiba frowned, refraining from his instinct to growl at the man. He _was_ a jonin after all. Akamaru on the other hand, had no qualms about yipping at Asuma to bring him back to focus on the question at hand. Good dog.

Scratching his cheek, Asuma muttered under his breath. "Uh, no, the other one."

Kiba shrugged. "What about that one?"

"…if you don't know, then they didn't tell you." Asuma said with a shrug. "It's not my place to tell, so I'm sorry, but that's all I'm gonna say."

As Kiba watched Asuma walk into the barbeque, he scowled and scratched his head. What was Asuma talking about? What kind of a mission had they taken that would make an elite jonin worry about them, even with their sensei around? It wasn't like many C-ranked missions were difficult; the way they had talked about the other C-ranked mission was clearly an indicator of how boring it – wait.

Musing silently, Kiba bit his cheek and tried to remember _how _they'd reacted to it. It was like it was no big deal anymore. He himself would've been jumping all over the place for _any_ kind of mission, especially one that was more than just mundane things that D-ranked missions were known for. They had just brushed it off and moved on, not even bothering to say anything about it. As for the first mission…

He had nothing. They had not said _one word_ about their first C-ranked mission. While he'd been covering all the boasting rights privileges with the tales of his team's first C-ranked mission, they'd been quiet and merely listened to his. And even then, they'd seemed more interested in talking about his team then about the mission itself! To him, that was absolutely crazy.

Something was going on with Team 7…and he was just the Inuzuka to find out.

"Hey Kiba, you coming or what?"

…right after he got himself some grade-A barbeque. _Then _he'd find out what was going on with them.

* * *

After going over the basics, and looking through what they all collectively knew, Team 7 had retired for the night knowing several things and one major fact; Naruto was the only one who knew how to pull pranks. However, he still needed help from them seeing how his skills in _other _areas were less developed. After a prank the scale they were going for, they'd need to know how to adequately defend themselves and each other. This meant that they were going to have to train like hell was coming upon them for a while to ensure that they pulled it off.

They only were going to get one chance; any attempts at it later and Kakashi would be on guard.

Agreeing to meet bright and early at their regular meeting spot, they'd then use the three hours Kakashi 'gave' them by being late to begin fine tuning their teamwork. In the evenings they'd spend one more hour together to review how their mission(s) had gone, and then point out where they all could improve. Once that was done, they'd all split up to work on their flaws separately so that Kakashi wouldn't notice them being together more often seeing how they'd just have left and gone home to train in his mind. On the days off they'd take care of any business they needed to like normal, unless one of them figured they should practice something different. In that case, they'd let them know beforehand so they could make sure they could all work together and get it down.

It was the beginning of a…strange teamwork exercise, but one that they were going to take seriously and do everything they could to come out on top.

Naruto, happy to have been a source of the inspiration for this silliness – er, team training – made his way home so that he could once more have some privacy. It had been a long day with plenty of physical labor, sweat, and thinking. Now he just wanted to go home, relax, and summon Musshu like he'd been asked so that he could have some more fun with him. He had to admit, the idea of summoning a small dragon wasn't what Naruto was expecting, but now that he was starting to get his head wrapped around it, he was starting to think a bit more logically about this like he had before Musshu had been summoned a second time.

If Musshu was one dragon, what were the other dragons like? How big were some of the other dragons? The ideas and images his mind conjured up were almost too much as he cackled wickedly on his way home. As he raced into his apartment, he quickly slammed the door behind him and threw his jacket to the side. Stretching and making himself comfortable, he bit his thumb till he bled, and went through the necessary hand signs. Slamming it on the floor once more, he waited in a crouched position, patiently for the normal smoke to clear to reveal who he'd summoned.

"Oh wow, that was _really_ great timing!"

Naruto grinned as the familiar voice cut through the smoke. "Hey Musshu."

Musshu grinned up at him. "Hey Naruto!" His grin quickly fell as something seemed to dawn on him. Before Naruto could move, Musshu jumped up at him and knocked him from his crouched position onto his back. "Oh man, am I glad to see you!"

"…uh…okay?" Naruto said, clearly confused by Musshu's sudden words and actions. "We just saw each other this morning. Remember?"

"Yeah, but I kinda sorta made a mistake and now everyone's waiting on you to get on over so that we can handle some stuffs." Musshu said, rushing through his words, trying to forget the angry look he'd been getting just a moment before he'd been summoned by Naruto.

"Wait, what? Why'd you get in trouble? Did you do something wrong?" Naruto asked, sitting up and pushing Musshu down off his chest so he could pay better attention.

Musshu held his tail in his hands, wringing it out as he struggled for the right words. "Well~ you see…I was kinda supposed to summon you to our realm but I didn't know about that until I talked to Shinryuu and when you summoned me I went back and fogot you again only to wake up Haru who took me to the mountains so I –"

"Musshu!" Naruto said, his eyes shut at he held his head. "Slow down, I can't understand what you're saying!"

"…you're right!" Musshu said, snapping his claws. Jumping back onto Naruto, he wrapped around him as he began channeling some chakra into him. "It's better if I just _show_ you!"

"Wait what?"

With a poof of smoke, the two disappeared from Naruto's home, leaving it quiet and serene for once. On the other side in the dragon realm, things were less calm.

"**Greetings Naruto-san, and welcome to the realm of dragons."**

"WHAT THE HELL?!"

* * *

AN: Alright, a few things.

1. I like Kiba, but I didn't get to work much with him in Word of Honor, which means he'll likely be down played a bit there. As such, he will be messed with a bit more here, seeing how...I can do that. Also, Choji is another character I haven't gotten to work with, so I'm going to play around with him a little more.

2. Raiu was based off of a dragon many people know and love as a power house. Since it's a bit difficult to tell exactly who (the more direct references should be obvious)...actually I think I'll wait till my _next_ big reveal to tell who all the dragon's are based on. Hehehe, that should be fun.

3. Hindsight is a pain, and realizing that when Kakashi told them teamwork was the key, you'd think they'd train more together...but a lot of their disjointed attacks and lack of faith in each others movements in the manga/anime made me wonder. Especially since Kiba _knew_ Hinata wasn't good enough to take Neji on; it was dumb and painful to say, but we can see later he was right. So how did he know? Obviously he trained with her.

Those are my thoughts. If you have other theories, let me know. Until next time, Guru out!


	4. Chapter 4

...see, I was telling the truth. I didn't post this as my 4th in a row. However, my muse called me, and seeing how college is starting, I needed to get this last one out while I still could. So...yeah. Have another chapter.

Also, all the current dragons (black dragon that'll be introduced included) are Japanese/Chinese style Eastern dragons. These are the main ones we'll be following. _However_, I do plan for there to be a few Western style dragons as well. For those lovely viewers at home, I pose you this question: What dragons do you want them to be based on? I won't say how many will show up, so go ahead and go nuts with your suggestions.

On another note for voting, there _will_ be pairings in this story. However, just to throw this out there...the kids are like, thirteen. As such, the pairing with the most votes will be the 'main pairing' which will progress into more during the Shippuden Era. However, to help build up some characters as well as set up any potential pairings, there will be hints of things here and there until I tally the final votes; so VOTE AWAY~!

And now, here's the chapter!

* * *

**Who Walks Among Dragons**

_He called to them from obscurity, and they replied like thunder. Both proved worthy of the others pride, and dreams. Now Naruto will grapple with a power none else had survived, and prove how his brand of unpredictability can change anyone._

* * *

Chapter 4

Haru and Raiu flew swiftly to the 'meeting plateau' where Shinryuu was waiting. As they approached, Musshu suddenly let out a frightened sound and he hid himself in Haru's hair. Haru and Raiu glanced back at him, and then back to the plateau curiously. As they circled around for a safer landing, they noted that Shinryuu was not alone; another, pitch black dragon, was standing not far from him with an eye of disdain at them.

They both rolled their eyes at the display, knowing that should this dragon act out what was likely going through its head, there were _three_ dragons strong enough to more than overpower it. Musshu didn't count; his cowering at her mere presence was proof enough of that. Although why, they could only guess.

Finally pulling in to land, they allowed the wind to blow out below them as they hovered above the ground, equally spaced and glowing with the aura of their power. Raiu's was substantially larger, but Haru put on a good show, and with the stronger glow from his eyes he held his own in displaying his impressive power. It was an entrance worthy of a dragon.

Seeing their entrance, Shinryuu chuckled softly and allowed his own power to rise as well. His scales rattled with each breath he took, like the echo of an avalanche rolling through a canyon. Raising himself to his full, towering height, all watched as his power began to draw in dark clouds above them. The average day became one with the sun completely blocked out; only the power from each dragon illuminating the sky.

The final member grumbled at what equated to a power play, and slowly moved to their feet as well. Having gotten closer, they could see that this dragon was as plain as they stood out. Thinner, and more streamline then even Haru, the unpolished pitch black scales smoothly lay against them like fine silk rather than ridged armor. Encompassing its face, was an odd green coloration that extended mainly across its snout until it reached around its mouth. Both eyes had scales that took on the appearance of fire, giving the sharp look more edge, as well as red scales that ran down its chin across its underbelly. Two sets of single point horns stuck out behind its head, oddly shaped in a near ninety degree angle upwards in a way that, were the other dragons around without respect for the power each had, would likely be mocked for being rather silly in the eyes of other dragons.

Letting out a snort of contempt, it flared up its power as well, rearing back on its hind legs to get height advantage over even Shinryuu as the onyx claws glowed with the strong energy spiking around them. Once fully displayed before them, the black dragon threw back its head and let out a loud blast of energy. Each dragon there could feel the typhoon unleashed by the one blast as it washed over them, dispersing some of the clouds directly above their meeting point while sending violent winds in a dome-like manner before abruptly stopping and once more becoming gentle breezes as though nothing had happened. Staring down arrogantly at the other dragons, it slowly allowed itself to sink down onto its forepaws before laying before them lazily.

There was a respectful moment of silence as they all let their power recede with their introductions out of the way. Then, Haru chuckled. "…I give it a seven."

"You sure? That was a decent eight point five to me." Raiu blinked, glancing at the still dispersing clouds. To be able to dispel Shinryuu's clouds after they'd been drawn in by his power was rather impressive after all.

"**I give it a seven point five myself."** Shinryuu remarked, getting a glare from the black dragon. **"You and I both know that we don't give our best efforts, but even you could've at least made the ground **_**shake**_** with a roar like that."**

Snarling, the black dragon simply snorted in reply. "I'd have liked to see you do better."

"Perhaps next time Aku." Shinryuu replied with a full-teethed dragon's grin; a dragon's way of showing acceptance to a challenge. "However, I was not the last to share my introduction, so it was not me who was required to put on a full performance." Turning to the other two, he slowly glanced between Haru and Raiu, he let a gravelly chuckle escape as he noted the only one missing. "You can come out now Musshu. Aku will not harm you or your kind."

"For now." Aku added, not willing to allow such a prospect from escaping in the future.

Whimpering, Musshu slowly allowed himself to fall from Haru's hair. Bouncing off the ground, he scurried his was to the center of the group, wringing his hands slowly as he looked between them all. "Eheh, hey there everybody…what's good? Aku you're looking…evil as ever."

"Bite me ash breath." Aku muttered, leaning forward as though challenging him to actually do it.

"Uh…I'd rather not. You know how it is. Fire dragons have a bad rap as it is, and…I'm just gonna, gonna quit while I'm ahead." Musshu swallowed the lump growing in his throat as he noticed the way Aku slowly curled up while keeping eyes on him. He was the bottom of the food chain here, and Aku appeared to be _looking_ for any reason to remind him of why.

"A wise decision." Haru said, intervening in time to keep Musshu from being eaten. "As humorous as I'm sure you find the idea of eating the young one to be, do not forget that he is a member of this council."

"Until a suitable replacement can be found." Aku hissed, raising up to challenge Haru.

Haru remained calm, unperturbed by Aku's remarks. "Until such a time though, you _will_ respect him as a member of this council, else you yourself will be removed and it would then be _your_ replacement we'd be seeking."

There was a silent stare down between the two, levels of killing intent rolling off Aku rising slowly at the clear threat. In a moment though, the intent disappeared and Aku slinked back to a more relaxed position; looking more bored then aggressive now that the 'argument' was over. Had Haru not experienced such attitude before, he would likely have stumbled a bit at the change in attitude.

"So! When do we see this summoner-dude-human-thing?"

Luckily, thing of a more surprising and –often literally – shocking nature happened quite often around Raiu which had helped prepare him long ago.

"**Patience Raiu, we must once more wait for his presence to call upon us before we may meet him."** Shinryuu said, he too slinking down to a more relaxed pose. Musshu flinched as the ground rumbled with each movement of the Shinryuu caused a small quake. **"Hehehe, or rather, we must wait for him to call Musshu back. He is the only one who can be safely summoned, seeing how if he even attempted to do so with us…"**

"He'd lose all his chakra even trying and likely die, if we didn't eat him first." Aku said with a smirk.

Raiu blinked, looking between the two of them. "…well that sucks. Are we gonna fix that? I wanna go see the human world too you know!"

"Oh, you'll love it Raiu!" Musshu said, remembering what the human world had looked like. "It's so…colorful! There's a lot of trees, and the humans are really fun to try and figure out." As he spoke, he felt killing intent slowly growing behind him. "It's really…really…um…hi?"

Aku glowered at Musshu, clearly disliking what was being said. "So…you've been there before? And yet we are still waiting for this summoner to summon you _again?_ Next you'll be telling me you went in more than once." Seeing the way Musshu looked away, Aku growled, letting the stones around Musshu rattle in rage. "So you have."

"Uh, maybe?"

"**Enough."** Shinryuu rumbled, as his power spiked, the dark clouds rumbling above them as his eyes glowed harshly. This caused Aku to pause and glance at him. Coiled, and prepared to launch at him, only Shinryuu's stern warning kept Aku from doing so.

"Regardless of how many times he's been summoned, it is better that he was not brought here immediately. If he had been, we would not be able to look over our options." Haru said, moving behind Musshu to act as a pseudo-bodyguard. "We do not need a repeat of our last summoners…much less a repeat of the _last_ summoner."

Each dragon present snarled. With a new focus for the prior anger, Aku relented and allowed Musshu some freedom from killing intent as new matters needed to be taken care of. "So, what should we do about him? If you'd let me, I can rip him apart before we even bother with worrying about such trivial matters. After all, he cannot do what cannot be undone if he doesn't live long enough to do anything."

"But he cannot prove his worth as a summoner either, like some we've known." Haru shot back.

Raiu looked between the two, sensing something between the two clashing between them. "…what did I miss?"

"…nothing Raiu." Haru replied after a moment more of tension. Raiu didn't need to know, not now at least. While Haru had no doubt that Raiu had the most power of them, beside Musshu Raiu was the youngest of them. Aku had skill and advantage in such a way that Raiu could not only be overpowered, but outright destroyed if Aku was feeling vindictive enough. With all that was happening, it was likely that Aku would do just that. "Just a difference of opinion that's all."

Musshu shook violently, the pressure between the two palpable and bearing down on him. Standing between two dragons hell bent on striking each other was not what he'd expected, and far from what he'd want to do in the near or far future. Luckily, a familiar pull on his chakra caught his attention as he was pulled away to the human realm.

The other dragons blinked as the sound of the summoning caught their attention. Slowly staring at one another, they collected themselves as quickly as they could. Unless Musshu was brain dead, the summoner would be there soon, and it would be good to make a good impression. All eyes were on Shinryuu to lead them in, seeing how he was the unofficial leader of their council. In a surprisingly short amount of time, Musshu returned with someone else clearly being unveiled from the smoke.

Raising himself up, Shinryuu spoke with his usual deep rumble. **"Greetings Naruto-san, and welcome to the realm of dragons."**

"WHAT THE HELL?!"

Silence.

With a bark of laughter, Raiu's laughter rattled through the air. "Oh! You were right Musshu, I _do_ like him already!"

Shinryuu tilted his head slowly, staring down at Naruto with a slightly raised brow. Leaning closer, stared into Naruto's eyes with a stone cold look in his eyes. He inwardly chuckled at the look on the boy's face; Naruto clearly wasn't expecting to be dragged here, which meant Musshu had likely dragged him in without warning him. All the more amusing, but less productive for now.

Naruto stared back, eyes all but popping out as his brain began to function again. Pointing at Shinryuu, he shouted loudly. "Aah! Dragon!"

"**Oh? And here I was under the impression that I was a fox."** Shinryuu said one of his whiskers gently tapping Naruto on his head. For Shinryuu, 'gentle' almost made Naruto plow headfirst into the ground.

To all of their surprise, Naruto seemed to easily brush it off as he sat up. Rubbing his head, he gave it a gentle shake and stared up at Shinryuu. "Ow…what was that for?"

"…**hm, how interesting. You're quite impressive for one so young Naruto."** Shinryuu muttered, careful to not raise his voice to loud. With his size, he might actually blow the poor boy away.

Naruto stared up at Shinryuu, blinking as he processed what was said. Grinning embarrassedly, he laughed as he scratched the back of his neck. "Um, thanks! Uh…and who are you? And where am I?"

Shinryuu rose himself up, allowing his impressive stature to be shown to its full extent as his scale glowed. **"I am Shinryuu, the great green dragon born from earth and stone of the mountains to the north. Wise as the long standing stone from which I was born, and gifted with rolling thunder. Elder of the Dragon Council, and strongest of those holding the earth element. And the dragons behind you, I will allow to introduce themselves."**

Naruto completely froze at that, slowly turning around. Staring up slowly, he realized that he wasn't alone with just one – no wait Musshu was still with him – two dragons. Behind him, the three dragons stared down at him with varying looks that he couldn't quite read; then again, a human trying to read the expression of dragons he didn't know from a distance would be difficult for anyone. Slowly looking from one dragon to the next, he slowly blinked.

"…well…um, okay?" Naruto said, still processing everything that was going on.

Haru rose next, eyes glowing as he stared down at Naruto. "I am Haru, silver river dragon, born of the rapids and still waters of the eastern rivers. Although I have not the greatness of Shinryuu, I am powerful in my own right, and I look forward to serving with you young Naruto-san."

Finally having caught up, Naruto crossed his arms and hummed as his mind now began to crunch other things. Slowly standing up, he looked around at the world around him. "Um…where am I?"

"You are in the realm of the great summons, the dragons." Haru replied, smirking at the perplexed look Naruto's face. Clearly this was a lot for him to take in, but he had time to take it in…some time at least.

Nodding slowly, Naruto glanced at Raiu and Aku, then slowly to Musshu. Musshu blinked. "What?"

"Um, why didn't you tell me you were going to be bringing me here?" Naruto said slowly, motioning to the world around him.

"I thought you wouldn't mind." Musshu replied nonchalantly, trying to dismiss it. Seeing Naruto about to argue with him, he raised a claw to stop him. "I mean think about it, how awesome is it to see the dragons you'll eventually summon, standing right in front you? Huh? Come on tell me it's not cool."

Naruto's expression remained a flat stare for a moment as he had a silent stare down with the small red dragon. Then, a large grin grew on his face from ear to ear. "Alright yeah, it is pretty cool." Looking around between them, Naruto chuckled as he stood up to get a good look at the dragons. "I mean WOW. When I met Musshu I thought that was pretty neat, but you guys…I am so gonna hold this over Sasuke-teme's head one of these days."

Ignoring Naruto's maniacal laughter, Raiu turned to Haru and gently nudged him. Haru's eyes darted between the two, thinking over what to do before he sighed. "Naruto-san."

"Eh?" Naruto paused in mid laugh, much to the disappointment of Musshu who'd joined in at some point and was left alone for a second before it died down to a nervous chuckle. Once silence had resumed, Naruto spoke up again. "What's up…Haru right?"

Haru nodded. "You are correct. However, I do believe you cut us off in the middle of our introductions, and they would like to finish before we continue."

"Oh? Oh!" Naruto glanced to Musshu, remembering how the smaller dragon had scolded him on his technique. Looking up to Haru, then back to Shinryuu, he realized these dragons were likely who helped him get a good idea what 'good technique' was. Nodding sagely, as though he'd figured something very important out, he turned back to Raiu and gave a small nod. "Alright, go ahead."

Raiu smiled at this, small sparks of electricity filling the air as Raiu spoke. "I am Raiu! I was born on the mountains of clouds and thunder to the south, and taught in their ways. Mine is the element of lightning and I am the strongest cloud dragon of my generation. I bet we're going to have a lot of fun!"

Naruto slowly grinned back at Raiu when he saw the full display of teeth, but felt nothing but good natured from the dragon. It didn't seem like any of them wanted to hurt him or be mean to him yet; Raiu seemed to be rather playful in a way that he could relate to. Turning to Aku, he froze when his face almost brushed against the black and green scales that were suddenly right in front of him.

Snorting, both nostrils blasting the heated air in Naruto's face, Aku slowly raised to full height to bear down on him. Each word was spoken slowly and deliberately, and made Naruto feel as though his entire body was shaking with each syllable. "I am Aku, greatest of the black dragons to have walked these realms. I am lord over the eastern wind and high ruler of the secret word, wild and wicked as the winds of my birth. My teeth are swords, my claws are spears, and my fire is that which leaves none left in its wake." Slowly leaning till Naruto's nose met with Aku's snout, Aku growled. "And unlike my fellow dragons, you have _not_ won me over with your mere presence. Should I find you unworthy, I will not hesitate to strike you down. Have I spoken clearly, _boy?_"

Naruto was having a difficult time focusing between Aku's threat and his back giving out as he was bending back at a somewhat awkward angle to allow Aku to continue to stare into his eyes. Swallowing heavily, Naruto slowly nodded. "Y-yeah. I understand."

Slowly slinking back to the shadows, Aku's expression remained flat and emotionless. The other dragons stared, unsure what to make of that. It was well within any of their rights to refuse the call of their summoner, but after how long it'd been since any dragon had been summoned each was somewhat eager to see how they could work this to their advantage. Dragons live a long time, but after even a few decades even they could get bored of the same old droll existence.

Of them, only Shinryuu could understand the subtle wordings of what Aku had said. Unlike the others, including himself, Aku had not said anything about wisdom or things that might be seen as trivial. Instead, Aku only spoke of the things that would leave an impression of a fierce, all-consuming dragon of death for the young boy to remember when thinking of Aku. In a way it was brilliant; the only time Naruto would now _want_ to summon Aku would be when he wanted his opponents to disappear

No, disappear was to tame a word. He'd summon Aku to lay waste to the person, their family, anyone they'd ever sneezed at, right down to their last chicken if he felt vindictive enough. And Aku would happily do it if offered such a chance.

The only thing Aku would bow to was the very chaos of the world.

Soon, Aku would learn of the chaos that was Uzumaki Naruto.

The first taste they all got of this was when Naruto bounced back from Aku's warning threat. Most people, shinobi or not, would have needed a moment to catch up with their heartbeat and calm down. Naruto, still on an adrenaline high from being nose to nose with an incarnation of death, was suddenly all but bouncing on his toes as he glanced around at all of them. "So, uh…why am I here again? I mean, it's really awesome you all are introducing yourselves, but I kinda sorta was getting ready for bed before you called and I'm gonna need to sleep eventually."

Haru, the least disturbed of them, replied with an even tone. "We called you so that we could meet with our new summoner. Seeing how we've had some…difficulties with summoners in the past, we had figured some time ago that we'd need a different approach to helping train you. As such, we needed to see what manner of person you were, and figure out from there what we should do."

"Oh okay. So, did you guys figure out how awesome I am?" Naruto said with a grin, looking rather pleased with himself.

Each dragon felt a bead of sweat drop the back of their necks at how silly that statement sounded to them. In their eyes, Naruto might as well have been a small puppy would be to a human; small and harmless, even if it had a lot of bark in an attempt to make itself noticeable. There was possible potential with how easily he simply let things roll off his back and moved on, but beyond that they'd have to see more before they could do anything with him.

Raiu seemed to sum it up best though with something childish, and yet proclaimed everything that Naruto was. "You're orange!"

Naruto's face lit up at this, pulling on his jacket as he admired his favorite color. "Hehe, yeah I am. Do you like it?"

"It's so bright!" Raiu exclaimed. Head tilting slightly, there was mischievousness to the next words. "I know how to be brighter though!"

Before Haru could stop it, Raiu tilted back and unleashed a bolt of lightning into the sky. With the black clouds still overhead from Shinryuu's earlier display of power, the lightning bounced around within them as their natural electricity began bouncing around with the new chakra driven into it. Lightning arching around it, a bolt dropped down into the center of them all, so close to Naruto that he could smell the ozone it had dropped from.

"AAH! I'm blind!" Naruto shouted, blinking frantically as his vision became dotted with a stunning array of colors and bright lights.

"Why are there so many colors?!" Musshu shouted with him, having gotten caught up in the blast from not realizing just what kind of flashy maneuver Raiu was going to pull off before it exploded in their faces.

With slow, unnervingly flat stares, the other three dragons stared at Raiu. Blinking nervously, Raiu's head bowed submissively as realization that what had just happened was likely _not_ the best thing. Which meant now they had to wait for Naruto to stop screaming and shouting about being blinded.

Joy.

* * *

After several minutes of calming Naruto and Musshu down, they finally had Naruto display some of the talents he had to the dragon council. Starting with his basic jutsu, then moving into actual combat, before finally they all absorbed the information and let it stew so that they could come to a conclusion. Fortunately for Naruto, the verdict was unanimous.

Naruto sucked.

Not in a bad way though; his jutsu list was limited, and his techniques in hand to hand were simple and unrefined with more similarities to a brawler then to a seasoned fighter. While his future looked dim if he stuck to these things, it left the dragons with a world of possibilities. There was so little to work with in terms of what needed to be broken down or beaten out of him that it was practically child's play.

His shadow clone jutsu was the only jutsu worth taking note of, but even then it was a supplementary technique. Naruto could focus all kinds of creativity with them, but in the end one could not say that the technique was initially designed for anything he did with them. He would be more then allowed to keep using it as he pleased. With their guidance, he'd make something out of it that would be even more feared and troublesome to opponents then before.

So, in a kinder manner then to blatantly put it out there that they were working with someone who needed to be whipped into shape, most of the dragons tried to put it a bit more tactfully. **"We certainly have a lot to work with. If he were in any other shape, we may have had our work cut out for us, but Naruto's potential is manageable."**

"I'll say. Naruto-kun has given us a rare opportunity that I don't think we've ever heard said about our previous summoners. It's like being handed raw ore." Haru remarked, having already realizing that making analogies was a great way to say things Naruto wouldn't understand. "With a bit of heat, a bit more added to it, and the proper application of pressure and he'll become something truly remarkable. I'd dare say he might even be a halfway decent shinobi too by the time we're done with him."

"I'm in favor of watching him squirm from the training at this point." Aku said, eyes on Naruto with a grin that promised pain in the future. "He bumbles around so much, it makes me think of a squirrel that's lost its way from home. Squirrels aren't _nearly_ as fun as he seems though. I think I'd rather like having a new chew toy to play with."

"He was like an ocean of orange! It was just, poof, and then bam! I couldn't count them all before they started beating each other up." Raiu, the most legitimately impressed of the group remarked. Glancing around eagerly, small cracks of static bounced around Raiu's head. "He's got to have tons of chakra in him! Do you think he could summon one of us?"

_That_ statement got them all to pause. He had made a large group of clones just then, and yet he still looked ready to go. If he had enough chakra to do something like that, how much chakra did the boy still have left? If he had enough to do it a few times over, did that imply that he had enough chakra to truly summon one of them to the human realm?

Naruto, oblivious to their shock, scratched the back of his head sheepishly. "Yeah, everyone says that a lot. I have _tons_ of chakra, which means I can do all kinds of awesome things!"

"Most of which you haven't learned yet." Aku remarked curtly, cutting off Naruto's 'happy moment'. "All you have is really one good jutsu, which can be outplayed or outmaneuvered by a smarter opponent or a foe who can overpower you. Face it, for all the power in the world you kinda suck when it comes to a good list of jutsu that you can use to counter enemies. And that fighting? I've watched children fighting better then you."

Naruto puffed out his cheeks and stomped his foot in anger. "Hey! I'll have you know I beat two people who were _way_ better than me with this jutsu! And my fighting style isn't that bad!"

"You're right. It's worse." Aku, ever the blunt one, continued. "A brawler still has some manner of focus when he's fighting, but you are so disjointed that even your clones' look confused when you actually do something _right_ that you then proceed to never try to do again. Yes, _clearly_ you have a fighting form that should be respected."

The other dragons winced at Aku's true but painfully direct words. While it was clear that Naruto _did_ need – a lot – of refining, he wasn't a lost cause. With how Aku was so bluntly putting it, Naruto sounded like Naruto was hardly worth their presence, let alone their time. While this had been obvious to them from the start, they'd figured that Aku would at least come around when the time for training was involved; the chew toy comment was supposed to be a step _forward_, and now they seemed to be left in square one.

Eyebrow twitching, Naruto made to give Aku a piece of his mind. No one dissed him like that without him getting his two cents in! Unfortunately for him, Musshu, realizing his hot-headed new friend was about to commit what would account as suicide, quickly scurried down his legs and tripped him.

Squawking in an undignified manner, Naruto hit the dirt for the third time that evening. Not perturbed by his face in the ground, he picked himself up to shout at Aku still. "Oh yeah! If you're so much better than me at fighting, then why don't you show me how it's done!?"

Aku glanced at Naruto slowly, brow raised with a faint trace of amusement as Musshu tried to crawl up to cover Naruto's mouth and stop him from digging a deeper hole. While he didn't know it, he was playing very close with a dangerous thing all dragons had; Aku's pride. "Why? It wouldn't be worth my time to even try." Aku muttered, looking away in disdain for Naruto and his actions.

Naruto, not really realizing just how much Musshu was trying to silence him, continued to yell back at Aku. "So you're saying you're scared I'll be too good for you? I thought your 'claws were swords' or stuff like that. Hmph, fine, I'll just ask someone else to teach me then!"

Sparingly, this innocent comment caused Aku's head whipped around. Any attempts at subtly getting Aku to teach him were now off the table. Pride grazed, Aku would not let a slight like this go unnoticed. Teeth bared and a growl causing Naruto to bounce slightly against the ground as it rumbled, Aku snorted before speaking. "You play a dangerous game _brat_. How dare you come to me, on your belly no less, _crawling_ for my teachings and then just drop me in such a manner. I will not stand for it!"

Naruto scoffed at that. "Oh yeah? Well you can't really say that seeing how you don't wanna teach me. Why shouldn't I go to someone who'll actually teach me something decent huh? I thought you'd be the cool one to ask since you sounded like you had all kinds of awesome techniques, but I guess it was all hot air."

Final nail in the coffin.

"Tomorrow. Soon as you can. Be ready to _bleed_ brat_._" Glancing at Shinryuu, Aku turned away. "I'm done here. I've seen enough."

With that Aku launched into the sky, flying away with such intensity that Naruto would've been knocked off his feet had he not already been prone. Staring at the retreating form of the black dragon, Shinryuu slowly glanced down at Naruto. Naruto, who had just enough sense to realize he'd missed something, chuckled nervously. Shinryuu on the other hand, laughed a bit more boisterously. **"Well then, it seems you've made a friend…as well as a potential enemy, for your future Naruto-san."**

"Um…yay?" Still a bit wound up, Naruto glanced between them all as he sat up again. "…what did I just do?"

"You played Aku's pride like a fiddle and wound up getting a sensei that's gonna try and maim you first chance." Raiu said, remarkably chipper for basically stating that the boy had written a death sentence for himself. Noting Naruto gawking a bit, Raiu sighed and waved him off. "Don't worry, we'll all be there and keep an eye on things. Like we're going to let the first summoner in…uh…however long it's been –"

"**One hundred and thirty-three years."**

"Right, that long! Anyways, we're not gonna let Aku eat you so soon after we got you." Raiu finished, still smiling brightly at the now worried blond.

Rubbing his head, Naruto sighed heavily. "…I really need some sleep." He muttered mostly to himself, though all the dragons present heard it quite clearly.

Musshu, not seeing how he could make things worse, scurried to Naruto with a slightly-uneasy smile on his face. "Don't worry about it Naruto. I mean really, you're going to be getting a lot of experience soon. Plus, you totally showed some shinobi smarts there!"

His attention caught, and his curiosity perking up, Naruto peaked out from behind his hands at Musshu. "…eh?"

"Well, think about it." Musshu said, now unsure about what he could say about the situation. "You showed Aku that you were serious, and that you could hold your own…and…um…Haru, help me out here man."

"You showed skill in manipulation beyond your comprehension of the art." Haru stated, now laying himself down near Naruto. For this part, it was time for him to educate the boy, and he wanted Naruto's full attention.

"I did what?" Naruto asked, eagerly staring at Haru as he leaned forward to listen better.

"_Oh he's going to be a fantastic student."_ They all thought as they watched Naruto eagerly awaiting instruction. "You found out something about dragons that you did not before and unknowingly used it to your advantage to get Aku to listen to you."

"…um…I'm confused."

"It's alright Naruto, I'll explain." Haru said, using a gentle tone that seemed to make the boy more relaxed and attentive. "You see, everyone has something of a fault that can become their downfall if they do not remain attentive to it and prepare just in case. In Aku's case, that something is hubris. Hubris is like an oversized ego, otherwise known as extensively proud and arrogant. When you brought up something that Aku was proud of, and then said that you would just ask someone else, it was a challenge to that pride as well as an insult to it. You stood your ground on your belief that Aku was powerful though, but once more stated that one of us could teach you better. Calling Aku's words hot air may have been a bit over the top, but it certainly forced Aku to make a choice or be left out."

"…he's saying you made Aku mad, and then pushed until you got what you wanted."

"Oh, that makes sense."

Musshu snickered as Haru slowly shook his head at how Naruto seemed to take Raiu's words more easily than his own. Of course, it only made sense after he'd explained the big parts, which meant he'd be able to say it again and have Naruto get the basics of it. Nodding to himself, he grinned. "That also gave us a bit more about _you_ Naruto, and your style as a shinobi."

Naruto blinked, scratching his cheek slowly. "Uh, how?"

"Most shinobi focus on stealth, on being sneaky and staying out of sight. However, there's a reason that techniques like the Henge (Transformation) involve smoke. For someone who's trying to sneak in somewhere, that wouldn't do at all since it'd give them away. However, if you were trying to get away, you could use that to your advantage to hide away in a crowd rather than waste energy running away." Staring at Naruto, he dumbed it down a bit more. "You're someone who's stealthy by using something loud to hide something subtle."

"Oh…wow." Naruto said, blinking as he thought that over. In hindsight, he could see how that was true. When he'd do pranks, he'd have people so focused on chasing him that he could hide using the often downplayed Kakuremino no Jutsu (Cloak of Invisibility Technique). Further proof could be seen by how Kakashi had been _surprised_ when, after charging him with a team of clones, he'd gotten the jonin in a hold from behind with another clone he'd had swim downriver to get behind him. If he hadn't switched with another Naruto, he might've actually hit him. And then in Nami no Kuni, against Zabuza with the demon windmill shuriken he'd thrown to Sasuke. It all made sense now; he was born to be loud, but still sneaky.

"This of course means that you'll fit in with us only too well." Haru muttered, glancing between his fellow dragons. "We…tend to be a bit over the top, if you haven't notice."

"Oh come on, the lightning bolt wasn't _that_ over the top." Raiu said with a pout.

"**Considering your element, I don't doubt you."** Shinryuu replied as Haru shivered. Both knew just how over the top and flashy Raiu could be when bored.** "However, that doesn't make everything else you do less over the top."**

"Whatever you say." Raiu said, shrugging nonchalantly.

"…it also means we'll be working with what you have." Haru continued, keeping pace with where he'd been at flawlessly. "We can help mold you a bit, to make you more suited to certain other techniques for the future, but in the end, we'll be focusing on getting your basics down first so that when we go into more advanced details you'll already be partway there. Is this acceptable to you?"

"…wait…does that mean I don't get to learn any super flashy jutsu until later?"

"Yes."

"Aw man~" Naruto moaned, flopping onto his back. "I was hoping for some really flashy jutsu to show off to my teammates."

Shinryuu shook his head slightly. **"Naruto, it would be best if you kept your ability to summon us to yourself."**

"Yeah, I kinda figured." He replied, shocking them a bit. "I mean, yeah I can summon you all, but the last time I was allowed to learn something cool the scroll was taken from me because it was full of kinjutsu…which really was way too easy come to think of it."

They all sighed at that, not sure if he was joking or if he was simply wandering off into his own little world. Raiu slowly leaned over Naruto, overshadowing him and causing him to blink as he stared back up.

"Naruto, what he means is your ability to summon us might be…exploited." Raiu said, sounding surprisingly somber for the first time since he'd met the dragons. "Due to the scroll being with us we can protect it, but even then you are the only one who can summon us…and may be the last summoner we'll ever have."

"…what do you mean?" Naruto slowly sat up, looking between the four dragons with a worried look in his eyes. There was a weight to what had been said, and for some reason, he felt a weight on his shoulders as Raiu said that last bit. "Why-why would I be the last? Can't you guys make another scroll?"

"**If only it were that easy."** Shinryuu remarked , sighing softly. **"The scroll is not something of our making alone, and as such we only are capable of remaking half of the scroll. Our half. The half regarding what humans contribute to the contract is written in fuuinjutsu or sealing techniques that humans are fond of using. Unless you know how to read and recreate those seals, we will be without a new scroll. And if you or someone else cannot rewrite the human's agreement on the scroll…"**

Each dragon's head slowly fell at that, the gravity of his words ever present. Even Naruto's head fell slightly at that. He'd felt a similar feeling before, this hopelessness and despair that permeated the air and suddenly clung to him as though attempting to choke him. The feeling was despair, and it reminded him of the people in Nami no Kuni.

Jumping to his feet, Naruto growled loudly. Much like in Nami, Naruto did _not_ like this feeling, and he knew he had to act. Pointing his finger up at them, he loudly began his declaration. "Alright then, I've decided! I'm going to learn from Aku, become the _best_ dragon summoner ever, and learn how to make the summoning scroll so that the world won't lose you when I'm gone. Besides, you're too awesome to go out quietly. If we're going down, we'll do it with a bang, dattebayo!" Slowly, he curled his finger into a tightly clenched fist as he resolutely stared up to them, determination etched into his brow. "I never go back on my word. That is my nindo, my way of the shinobi."

Naruto's words seemed to echo across the plateau after he'd spoken them, leaving a slight echo to his words that seemed to continue outwards. The dragons stared down at him, making Naruto feel somewhat nervous since they didn't say anything about his declaration immediately. Then, almost as one, they bowed their heads to him. Unlike before though where it was with sadness and pain, there was respect and hope, as each moved their right claw over their chest in a semblance of a bow.

After a moment of silence, Naruto flinched as a small yawn escaped his lips. All of the dragons smiled as Shinryuu addressed him. **"Go home Naruto-kun. Get some sleep. When you want to come here tomorrow, perform the summoning, but focus the chakra into yourself by placing your hand on your chest. It will summon you here…and then we'll begin."**

Nodding, Naruto sighed as Musshu hopped up and sent him back home. Staring at the empty space as the smoke cleared, Musshu slowly turned around to them. "…do you all really think he can do it?"

Sharing a look, the three dragons slowly sighed. In the end, Haru was the one who answered. "Musshu, he's our last hope. If he doesn't do it…there won't be anyone else who'll get the chance."

"No pressure." Raiu muttered, looking sadly where Naruto had once stood. They'd tried to keep just how important it was to them for their scroll to be remade, and Naruto's natural ignorance shown through to keep their worries secret still. Raiu did not wish for such a burden to be on Naruto's shoulders, none of them did.

With their fate at the end of their rope though, did they really have another choice?

* * *

Silence permeated the underground stronghold beneath Konoha as a ghost-like figure made his way down a hall to the control center of the base. More than half his body was covered in bandages, with short dark hair covered his head, and wrinkles across his face which defined his aging nature. Despite this, his lack of footsteps as well as lacking need for any form of walking instrument showed that the man was still skilled enough that he could perform well enough in shinobi arts to tangle with many who might cross his path.

He was Danzo, leader of Ne (Root), and today he was awaiting the arrival of his two agents to bring him news of their mission.

These particular two were not yet fully broken, something of which he knew would be remedied soon enough in the future. Their time to prove their full strength and unshakable loyalty would arrive soon enough. However, for now they still performed well enough that this mission would not be too difficult for them to accomplish.

His head lifted slightly as he heard the faintest of talking as someone approached him. Any other time he might've thought that those approaching were of lesser skill then those of his trained elites. Currently though, it was clear to him that the footsteps belonged to those wanting to be found. It was likely that whatever happened on the mission would not bear fruit in the desired manner, but he was a wise enough 'gardener' that he knew he could still 'cultivate' with whatever was placed before him.

Entering the room, the voices stopped as the two young men looked to him. The first boy was clearly older, with grey hair and light colored eyes, with a giant shuriken and a tanto strapped to his back. The other boy had black hair in a vaguely bowl cut shape, with a tanto on his back as well. Both wore the official Ne uniform, and were just distant enough in emotions to show that Danzo's program was beginning to have some effect with them.

"Report." There was no need for any greeting, or any kind of formalities. He was there for what they'd gathered; nothing more, nothing less.

The grey haired boy's eye twitched slightly, likely unnerved by Danzo's cold demeanor. They both already knew that his report would not be a pleasant one, so he simply sighed before speaking. "After performing the necessary recon of the area, we were unable to locate the scroll as per your instructions Danzo-sama."

Danzo nodded slowly, noting each mistake made for later reference. "I see. And what did you find out then?" Seeing the way the younger boy winced this time, it was clear that he too realized that they'd been caught. "Do not think that I am a fool boy. I have trained you better then to simply let something as fundamental and threatening to Konoha as this could potentially be slip past you. Now speak."

The young boy shivered, still not used to the tone Danzo would use. "After our investigation yesterday, we took it upon ourselves to sweep the homes of the genin. Were the jonin to have been the one to have taken the scroll, we would have been outmatched, and our identities compromised. After doing another sweep earlier tonight, we once more found nothing out of the ordinary."

Danzo exhaled sharply, a bare hint of annoyance in it before he spoke. "So the scroll truly was taken away then. A shame. To once more have that power under our control would have been a great boon to our forces." Staring down at the two for another moment, he pressed on. "What have you found in regards to the genin?"

The boys glanced at each other, the grey haired boy giving his younger companion a small nod before he spoke. Danzo would have to keep an eye on him; the way their closeness was could prove to be a downfall for them in the future were they, and he, not careful.

"We determined that all three of them are still safe, in regards to the safety of Konoha." He said slowly, thinking over all the information he'd obtained. Determining what was important and what wasn't would be something of a chore, were he not in Ne. Everything could be of use in Ne. "The girl in the group has not quite developed despite the account she gave on the mission to Nami just over a month ago. Much of her diary consisted of aggression towards her other teammate, as well as a pining for their final teammate. She also had dreams logged there as well, showing she's beginning to show some signs of PTSD, but only faintly. She was not in direct combat, so that's expected.

"The Uchiha on the other hand has PTSD. We confirmed that on both trips there. After finding his home barren of all but necessities, we noted him struggling in his sleep. We don't know what kind of foe he faced, but they left him with a clear impression, which likely added to the issues he's already had to deal with."

Danzo nodded, knowing much of this already. Sasuke was a wild card in regards to his loyalty, his potential, and how destructive he could be if he turned out to oppose him in the future.

"The final teammate…" He paused for a moment, his lips twitching upwards slightly in a smile before he spoke. "He certainly is the least of a threat to Konoha from what we could tell. From the light scribbles in his journal, to the plants he keeps in his backroom, everything was kept in an orderly manner that would defy expectation considering his nature. However, it's clear that he holds attachments to the village, and has taken up something he calls 'his nindo'. It appears that, so long as we keep his focus in the village to develop bonds, he will remain a strong supporter to Konoha and its future as he protects his 'precious people' as he calls them."

"A foolish notion from a foolish boy." Danzo stated plainly. He knew how the world worked, and there would be no remorse for those who dreamed such dreams. "However, this is useful information. Be diligent in following him for now; determine his habits, find out who these people are he's attaching himself to, and if needed direct him to people who we've determined will help in the defense of Konoha's future. If you can find a way, do the same with the Uchiha. If not, then report what you learn of him, and of whether he might become a threat to Konoha. You will do this for the next month unless I state otherwise. Am I understood?"

"Yes Danzo-sama." They both said, bowing their heads as they spoke.

"Good. You may retire for the evening. I need to think more on this." Danzo said, slowly making his way out of the room.

Neither boy moved from their position until Danzo was far enough away that they could speak freely again. Once he'd reached that point, the grey haired boy suddenly grinned widely. "Well, that was definitely way more interesting than any other espionage mission we've been on."

"Shin, you know we need to suppress our emotions more." The black haired boy said, trying to keep his voice and expression flat, but failing to hide the worry from both. "Danzo-sama noticed your reactions, which means that he'll likely reprimand us later for it. You need to be more careful."

"Yeah Sai, I know." Shin remarked, his face still grinning in a mischievous manner.

When Shin began rubbing his hands together, Sai's eyebrows began shooting up. Glancing between the two, he began piecing things together. "Shin, what are you planning? You know if we go against Danzo-sama and do anything outside of his regulation or directives we'll be punished."

"Oh but Sai, we won't have to break any rules to do this." Shin said, cackling quietly.

"…what is it?" Unable to help himself, Sai leaned forward to listen to what his adoptive brother had to say.

"Well, Danzo-sama said he wanted us to keep an eye on that Naruto boy, and even Sasuke." Shin said slowly, his grin growing slightly with each word. "He also said that if needed, we could…_direct_ them to people who might be able to help build their loyalty to Konoha for the next month."

"…you aren't thinking of…" Sai's eyes widened as he thought of several different things Shin could do. "Shin, we –"

"It's a win-win Sai." Shin said, putting an arm over Sai's shoulder. "We win because we'll be able to report good things to Danzo-sama, as well as possibly get a good show of what all happens to them. And they'll win because we'll be able to introduce them to people they wouldn't have met before otherwise. And besides, this is like advanced espionage. Rather than just getting information, we're making it by causing things to happen from the shadows. It's perfect training for us!"

Sai shuffled nervously, mulling it over inwardly. Letting his inner battle slowly die down, he glanced to Shin nervously. "It would be good training."

"Uh-huh."

"And we would be able to…watch them interact with one another. Which would give Danzo-sama information on other people in the village as well."

Shin blinked. "Oh wow, you're right. That's a great idea Sai! See, this is why we work so well together; I think up the good stuff, and you make it even better."

Sai glanced away, still not used to the praise from his adoptive brother. "You're just saying that. I still have a long ways to go in terms of learning how to make my own plans to counter plans set up by my enemies."

"Don't worry, I'll help teach you like I promised I would." Shin said, patting Sai on the back. Pausing for a second, he grinned as another thought came to him. "You've still been drawing right?"

Not liking how alarm bells suddenly went off in his head, Sai nodded slowly. "Yes, I have. You told me to keep up the practice, as it was a good way of expressing myself. I've been looking to get a few books to sketch in, and have tried using them in conjunction with jutsu as well to justify my practice should Danzo-sama ever question me about it."

Shin whistled softly. "Wow Sai, that's some really deep thinking. Like, deep. The kind of thinking that you could almost call a _plan_ or something like that." Chuckling when Sai gently elbowed him, he waved his arms defensively. "Hey, hey I'm just kidding with you. Seriously though, you're learning more than you think. Clearly you've planned that out, and it's a damn good one too."

Sai smiled slightly at this. "Thanks Shin." Raising an eyebrow, he continued. "So, what were you getting at with your question?"

"Huh? Oh that. Well I figured that we could use it for you to practice drawing the people we meet. You know, people, women, pets, girls, and other things."

"Three of those things are essentially the same." Sai pointed out, getting a sinking suspicion that he was figuring out what Shin was getting at.

"Well, yeah, but not really." Shin smiled as he patted Sai's back. "After all, you still can't draw girls or women, can you?"

"…their figure is rather difficult to determine." Sai admitted, silently remembering his failed attempts to draw female figures. Drawing figures like himself and Shin had been all too easy, and animals had come easier still. Women though, were a perplexing conundrum wrapped in an artistic riddle that continued to perplex him and give him artists block like no other drawing could.

Having caught Sai in his 'trap', Shin sprung it. "Well then, if Naruto or Sasuke _happen_ to come across a girl or woman, I'll just have to have you draw them so that we can use that as another excuse for Danzo to allow your drawing skills to improve. After all, drawing people you've just met would help with later identifying them in our bingo book." A short pause. "Or for admiring their womanly curves."

"Shin!"

"Oh come on, I can't help it, it's a natural thing." Shin remarked, attempting to be dismissive.

"I won't draw them for your entertainment." Sai said flatly, not even needing Danzo's training to pull something like that off. While he _could_ do something like that, it wouldn't be beneficial to him in the long run. On the other hand, if he did learn that, he would have the element of surprise as most male opponents would not be expecting their inked fantasy to come to life and attack them. "…however, I will consider it for later usage. The idea is not without merit."

"_Score one for my team."_ Shin thought, not really caring what 'team' it was just so long as Sai was on it. "So we're agreed then?"

"…it is a good enough plan." Sai said after a moment.

"Good, because I wasn't really asking." Ruffling Sai's hair, he gave Sai a wave as he walked to his room. "Good night Sai, I'll see you bright and early."

Sai blinked, sighing softly as he too made his way to his room. "Goodnight Shin. I…sleep well."

Sai could indulge Shin a bit. After all…he knew what would soon come, and he wanted to enjoy the moments he had left.

* * *

AN: Yeah~ I'm awesome, even though that probably had a lot of confusing things in it. Thankfully, I can blame _foreshadowing_ and whatnot.

The scenes with Naruto and the dragons were way to much fun to write, especially since I know what's going on with each of them. While a small part of me feels bad for putting _another_ weight on Naruto's shoulders, the other part is waiting for Aku to turn Naruto into a chew toy. Ehehehehe~

Oh! And since I'm talking about Aku, who noticed what I've been doing with two of the dragons? It's been very specific, and it might be something over looked, but it's there. I ask because either in the next chapter or the one following will reveal why I've been going about it that way...if you can guess what 'that way' even is. Once it's revealed, you'll understand.

And~ the ending. Oh my gosh you have NO idea how improved the Sai and Shin scene was. I wanted to just end it, but I was short on words I then remembered a certain someone who happens to be lurking around who would notice things going on in Konoha such as~ a scroll that he'd want to determine if it existed or not. Which lead to Danzo saying something that'll make several things in the future so much easier since I now have someone I can use to point people where I need them to go! Plus, I've been away from fanfiction for a bit, but I have not yet seen any big stories out there that use the youthful (YOUTH *smack* Down Gai!) duo of Shin and Sai. Most of the time Sai is thrown into the mix to fill in a spot or do something-or-another, but then what about Shin? Well, here he is, and even with a terminal illness, he will be of use to me! Come Shin, to the plot cave! *abscond*

Thanks for reading! Follow, favorite, and leave a review on thing's you'd like to see. Till next time, Guru out!


	5. Chapter 5

...well...this...I got nothin. I am liking this story _way_ to much right now. That, and Sasuke and Anko's discussion in Word of Honor is really killing me right now. I swear, I will get another chapter of that out soon, but in the meantime, inspiration for this chapter just kind of...flowed out, so I let it.

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. If you do, and you are not Kishimoto, please~ let me have some rights to it so that I can use your talents to draw this story because it'd be _hilarious_ for me to see this drawn out.

* * *

Who Walks Among Dragons

_He called to them from obscurity, and they replied like thunder. Both proved worthy of the others pride, and dreams. Now Naruto will grapple with a power none else had survived, and prove how his brand of unpredictability can change anyone._

* * *

"Dodge!"

"You cannot escape me forever!"

"Damn it Naruto watch where you're throwing those!"

The three genin were in remarkably different situations as their first 'official' training session began bright and early. After discussing the different options they could take, they'd had to decide on a few key points to make sure that things went smoothly.

First, Sasuke would be the 'head' of their group. When Naruto had tried yelling about it, he'd replied that him being the head just meant that if they needed to fall back he'd be the one they'd fall back on first. Naruto and Sakura were still equal, and therefore at some point they'd switch it up and see how they did in the others shoes. They further smoothed over Naruto's wounded ego by telling him he was their 'strategic advisor' and would be the first in most of their fights; being a tank with more chakra then both his teammates combined helped with that. Finally, Sakura was their 'intelligence gatherer', though there was still work to be done in that regard seeing how she didn't have much in the way of gathering information. Most of it was already in her head.

Which lead up to this point. Sasuke, figuring they needed to determine how well each would do in their respective positions, decided to have a mock fight where Naruto would attempt to prank them in any way possible. He wasn't allowed to use lethal force, but if they were in some way pranked and 'marked' within the hour, he won. Soon as Naruto had finished pooling his supplies, they discovered what the chunin's bane truly was.

"Paint can!"

While Naruto was notorious amongst his classmates as a troublemaker, none really thought much of his skills at pranks. Neither Sakura nor Sasuke thought of how quickly he'd come up with the 'prank' he'd pulled on Kakashi when they'd first met him seeing how they'd both simply thought it was childish; outwardly at least, inwardly was a whole other story. None of his classmates had truly been on the brunt end of a prank seeing how Naruto tried to keep those involving people more harmless then scrawling huge amounts of paint across the Hokage Monument. Having firsthand experience was teaching them a valuable lesson.

"Sakura he's –"

"I see it, I see it!"

You do not want Naruto as an enemy in a prank war.

Neither of them were certain _how_ he'd gotten ahold of half these items; mostly since he'd had a child's allowance, and D-rank missions didn't pay _that_ much. What they didn't know was that most of his supplies were acquired by those who didn't need them anymore, or were made by hand when Naruto had once had the free time. Thankfully he didn't anymore, but the leftovers were something else. Later, they'd regret forgetting his clones.

Ducking under a wire while Sasuke slid under it, Sakura couldn't help but pause to catch her breath. This training exercise was supposed to bring them closer together in a way, make them more united as a team. Instead, she was beginning to see red, and was certain that given the opportunity she'd end up _killing_ Naruto. At least, she would if she could keep up with him. Throughout all this, she was starting to see a set of glaring weaknesses in herself and her teammates.

For herself, it was clear that even with chakra modifying her speed to keep up, Sasuke naturally out sped her. She already knew that both of the boys had her when it came to strength, but she didn't even have a speed advantage to counter that. With that, she'd found that her chakra was far too low to use as often as she'd like, meaning she was slowing Sasuke down to help keep her from getting hit and them losing. It was quickly humbling her as to how much she was relying on him.

On that note, Sasuke had his own issues as well. While he was more rounded out then her and Naruto, he was struggling with his own stamina issues after a while. He wasn't nearly hunched over like she was, but it was evident. Not only that, but with his counters she'd recognized what might've been a fatal flaw of the Sharingan; it could counter chakra and people, but even he'd nearly gotten clocked by the incoming paint cans on a couple occasions. Clearly the Sharingan was meant to act as a boon to its user in that it would allow them to imitate what their opponent was doing. With Naruto throwing paint cans, stink bombs, and –

"Chicken!"

…chicken feathers in some kind of adhesive they didn't have time to identify, Sasuke couldn't copy him, and even if he did he had nothing to throw anyways.

And finally, Naruto. He was less obvious to her, but she didn't need to analyze him seeing how she already knew what he needed to work on. Strength and speed he already had, but he had no form to strengthen what he already knew to become focused. He flailed his chakra around in massive quantities, neglecting the subtly of control. While he had strategy beaten into his head somewhere, it was easy to overcome them and dodge after a while. And from the way his ranged weapons were flying, if he improved his accuracy he'd have hit them far more often than he was now.

All in all, it was turning out to be a fruitful observation session for their first training period.

"Duck!"

"That's not a duck it's – nevermind!" Sakura shouted as she fell to the ground as another stink bomb flew over their heads.

"How did he even _get_ this much stuff?" Sasuke asked, spitting out some grass as he got to his feet. "I mean…he has to run out right?"

"Um, well he will eventually, but I don't think he'll use them all anyways. He's going to save them so we have some stuff for later." Sakura replied, leaning against a tree while breathing heavily to regain herself. Turning to Sasuke, she moaned softly. "How much longer do we have to do this?"

Sasuke pulled out the alarm clock he'd brought, eyebrow twitching at the clock before he spoke. "Five more minutes."

"Damn, I was hoping I had more time. Oh well, time to end this."

Both of them froze as they slowly glanced up above them. There, sitting quite proud of himself, Naruto grinned like a Cheshire cat. In both hands, he held bags of something that seemed to sparkle in the light from the trees. Recognizing what they were, Sasuke's eyes narrowed. "You wouldn't dare."

As if to slap him upside the head, he was the first target of Naruto's assault. Tired and weary, he barely managed to dodge out of the way as it slammed into the tree behind him. In his exhaustion, he missed the root and tripped over it, falling to his face. Sakura raced over to him, trying to help him up to escape just as the second one impacted on them. Eyes clenched shut, they both winced and waited for whatever it was to die down before even breathing. Sakura wasn't sure what had happened, but Sasuke was cursing up a storm.

Landing in front of his currently blinded teammates, Naruto chuckled as he stared at his work. "Man, did I do good, or did I do good?"

Slowly opening her eyes, Sakura glanced around. Not sure what she was looking for, she paused when she noticed something shiny near her. Glancing down, she had to bite back a small giggle as she saw Sasuke covered in what appeared to be glitter; lots and lots of glitter. To make matters worse, since it had popped over him, the more part of it was in his hair. Which lead Sakura to remember that the glitter bag had also popped above _her _head, which she found to also be infested with plenty of glitter. For a girl such as herself, who prided herself on her looks and her hair maintenance, this was an absolute disaster. With barely concealed rage, she slowly stood to unleash it on Naruto.

Naruto, sensing impending doom, slowly backed up. "Now Sakura-chan…it was part of the training! Blame Sasuke, it was his idea."

"…he's right."

Sakura froze, and Naruto blinked as they both glanced at their normally broody teammate. "Eh?"

Sasuke sighed as he stood, glitter falling all over the place as he tried dusting himself off to the best of his abilities. "I did say that Naruto could use whatever he had as part of the training. As shinobi, we need to be prepared for anything thrown at us whether it's a kunai or paint cans. Glitter could almost be like…poison, or fire I guess. We expected him to keep throwing stuff directly at us, but when he switched it up, we weren't quite as ready."

Naruto scratched the back of his neck sheepishly, nodding vigorously. "Yeah…the glitter was the main point of the prank the whole time. I had been saving that for something special a while back, but then didn't get to use it since the only time I could…I wasn't able to." Naruto pouted, looking away with a sour look. "Stupid Iruka-sensei giving me detention."

"…which is another good skill Naruto's showing." Sasuke continued, getting a shocked look from them again. He was _really_ starting to love the feeling of being the head of their group; seeing how Naruto soaked up his praise was a good boost to his ego. "He used a missed opportunity to make a new opportunity, which is another good shinobi skill. To be honest, we should try to keep that in mind with Kakashi-sensei. If the first attempt doesn't go over, we may have to hold onto some tricks for later."

Sakura nodded slowly, anger gone now that Sasuke was speaking. "Okay, that's a good idea." Pulling out a few pieces of paper, she smiled shyly. "I was observing a few things about each of us as we were fighting that we could work on. I could write them down, and we could all try to help each other work on them for the rest of the training."

"Oh? Did I have as many things I needed to work on as Sasuke?" Naruto asked, both to rub it in his face if he didn't, as well as to get a little boost to _his_ ego.

"…actually I didn't find much yet." Sakura said slowly. "You both have different flaws, which will require different things to help with them. In all honesty, you both have the same amount of flaws, just in different areas." Thinking quickly when she saw both of them look at the other with wary eyes, she explained in a more academy level. "Really, Naruto is better at some things then Sasuke, but Sasuke-kun is better at things Naruto isn't. It makes you…close to equal, but I wouldn't know who's better."

"Well, seeing how I got you both with glitter, I'm putting that down as a score for me." Naruto said, grinning widely. Before he could let his ego grow too much, he found his chest suddenly hit by several handfuls of glitter. "Teme! What was that for!"

"Alibi." Sasuke said, only partly lying. "Glitter doesn't come out of our clothes that easy dobe, so we'll have to stay like this for a while. If you were the only one without it, Kakashi might suspect something."

Naruto frowned, scratching his head as he tried to piece that together before nodding. "Alright, fine. But you totally owe me ramen for this!"

"We aren't eating ramen after every practice." Sakura said, vehemently against constant ramen consumption in the way Naruto did. "We need to eat more than just ramen after all. I know a good place near the Hokage's tower that's supposed to be good. I heard they have a couple of good specials, including a couple dishes with rice balls and a grilled tomato dish."

Naruto looked like he was about to say something, but was cut off when Sasuke chimed in. "That sounds good to me. Eating something healthy every other day might help keep us stronger and more focused then if we just go to one place all the time."

Grumbling at being outvoted, Naruto slowly pulled out his wallet. Wincing, he glared at them. "You two are paying."

"…Fine. But if we're paying, you better be there with us." Sasuke said after a moment.

Sakura glanced between the two, silently wondering if she was imagining the small twitch both had that could've been a smirk. But that couldn't have been right; that'd have meant that they respected each other in some way. They'd started training together for less than one hour, how could he have gotten his respect that fast?

Just as she thought this, the alarm in Sasuke's hands began ringing. Jumping in surprise, he glared at the device while Naruto laughed at his reaction to it. Silencing it, Sasuke shoved it in his pocket and turned to Sakura. "Alright Sakura, let's hear what you have for us to work on."

Sakura nodded, handing both of them a paper. "Alright. We only have a little over and hour left, so here's where we need to start…"

* * *

"Yo! Sorry I'm late, but I was passing a burning bookstore, and they…um…I'm sorry, did I come to the right meeting place? What did I miss?"

Kakashi was not a man easily startled or confused. He prided himself on knowing more than most, although he made sure he kept up on that by being one step ahead of most. Now though, he was at a complete loss, and it was disturbing him.

All three of his cute students had been attacked, nay ravaged, by the evils of superfluous glitter. It clung to their clothes, was stuck in their hair, and from how Sasuke kept itching his neck, he had to wager that some had gotten under their collars as well. Not only that, but they looked beat and exhausted already. He hadn't even gotten to the part where he could watch them struggle to deal with each other during their D-ranked missions and yet they were tired.

Plus, no one had yelled at him when he'd arrived. How rude was that? Their usual greeting was nowhere to be found, and he already felt he missed it.

Naruto, seemingly the most coherent of them, finally noticed his arrival and waved halfheartedly. "Oh, hey Kakashi-sensei, you're right on time." Seeing Kakashi's look, he glanced down and chuckled. "Oh this? Well you see, we were on our way here and we met with Konohamaru. You see, he's taken my place as the Academy prankster…and…well we didn't expect the glitter cannon. Something about 'surpassing his boss' or something."

Kakashi nodded slowly. He'd heard that the boy was pulling pranks, but to have done it to Naruto who he considered his 'boss'…he had to applaud the boy. Like Naruto, he had a lot of guts doing something that most people wouldn't. He just hoped the kid hadn't started a prank war with his student; Konoha wouldn't hear the end of it.

"I see. Well, I went to the Hokage, and grabbed us a mission. It's D-ranked, but…" Glancing between them and their weary look of gratitude, he chuckled. "I don't think that'll be too much of an issue, will it?"

"No Kakashi-sensei." They all droned as one, getting up and following him as they moved to get to work.

Kakashi just shrugged as they did so. "What a weird start to the day."

* * *

As Team 7 performed their low leveled missions, they were beginning to notice something they'd never noticed before. The D-ranked missions were easy, but were manageable even when they were tired. Whether it was walking dogs (surprisingly without Naruto grabbing the biggest ones and getting dragged everywhere) or pulling weeds, the missions could be handled despite their previous training. Which led them all to a similar and startling conclusion; teams were _supposed_ to train before missions!

In hindsight, it made sense. By training beforehand, they refreshed their team bond for the day, and saw if they'd learned anything new from their personal training. Then, using the missions, they could deepen the roles they had set previously. Sasuke led the group, but would fall back on either Sakura's input or Naruto's advice before going on. Upon realizing that he was being respected for what he said, and seeing it was valuable, Naruto made it a point to focus even harder to see what all he could spot and what he could do to make their jobs easier. While he did have wild ideas still, they were able to get him to actually listen to them as well. Apparently Naruto's respect for people was inversely proportionate to how much respect they showed him; a life lesson they were surprised they'd missed for so long.

For Kakashi, he wasn't sure whether to be pleased of confused by his team. Clearly the dynamic had changed for them, but even he was surprised how one day and one training session had changed them. A part of him believed that it was due to their joint humiliation of having to do every mission covered in glitter, but then he looked closer. Underneath it all, he saw what was working, and the small turnings of their teamwork made him smile. It was amazing what showing a little respect for each other could do in the long run for kids.

"Alright, I think that's enough for the day. Time to go home." Kakashi said once their final mission had been completed.

Naruto let out a small whoop of excitement, eyes gleaming as he cackled to himself. "That was actually kinda awesome! Hehehe, yahoo!"

"Naruto, quiet down." Sakura muttered, still embarrassed to have been seen walking around covered in glitter all day. "We get it, the missions were easy. Now can we _please_ go get something to eat? I'm hungry, and I haven't eaten since breakfast."

Naruto paused, remembering their earlier promise. "Eh? Oh yeah! Lead the way Sakura-chan!"

Kakashi blinked as he watched them leave, somewhat disappointed they hadn't asked him to come along. As they rounded the corner, he pulled out his book and sighed. "They still have much to learn…but they're getting there now."

With the trio, they all ignored the confused looks they'd been getting from people as they passed and went to the restaurant. It was a quiet little place, but it had enough traffic around from its location near the Hokage's Tower to attract more shinobi customers then civilians. With how much they worked, and the kind of physical labor they performed, the restaurant had a prime location that was only bested by the Akimichi clan's own establishment not far from their clan compound.

As they entered, they were given a once over by the person behind the stand before getting a raised eyebrow at their appearance as well as their hiate's. "…rough missions?"

"Something like that." Sasuke muttered. "Table for three please. Actually, could you make that a booth?"

"Of course. We have one open near the back if you'd like." The man replied, motioning for them to follow. Quickly getting them to their seats, the man grinned as he handed them their menu's "Your waitress will be by in just a moment. In the meantime, look over your menu's, and see if there's anything you'd like."

Naruto watched the man leave, fidgeting every so often before looking at his menu. "…this is kinda weird. Not a bad weird, but weird."

His teammates glanced at him curiously, not sure what he meant by that. Seeing how he'd generally stuck to eating at the ramen stand they guessed that he usually chose to eat in simple places. A fancy type of establishment like this would be beyond his normal eating habits, and likely was somewhat uncomfortable. Seeing how he hadn't been kicked out on the spot, they guessed this place had been one that he hadn't pranked during his years at the Academy, which was a bonus for all involved. That, and they apparently had sympathy on all of them for the glitter that still sparkled on them from earlier.

Glitter is _impossible_ to get off sometimes.

"So, what are you getting Naruto?" Sakura asked after a moment, clearly wanting to change the subject.

"Eh? Um, well." Naruto flipped through the menu, the variety and detail of some of the menu was getting him to whimper softly. "…I-I don't know. I've never had most of this so I don't know what's good and what's not. I mean, look at this!" He flipped the menu around and started pointing randomly at the pages. "Dumplings, tempura, teriyaki, yakitori…what do I pick? What's good, and what do I order first?"

His teammates stared at him, suddenly realizing something else that Naruto would have to work on; being in social environments. The way he was flailing around, and making more of a fool of himself then normal were quite effectual evidence of that. As they thought of this though, it occurred to them that Naruto _wouldn't _know anything about this type of environment. He'd grown up on ramen, seeing how it was cheap for him and Iruka to pay for. An establishment that was a bit fancier like this would be lower down on where he could go, making his need to learn how to act less as well.

Like hell they'd let that slid though; well, Sakura wouldn't at least.

"Naruto, calm down." Sakura said, her hands slowly lowering in a placating manner. "Just…take a deep breath, okay?"

Naruto frowned, but slowly did as instructed. His eyes were still shaking a bit as he looked over everything, but it was clear that he was staring to get ahold of himself.

"Good. Now, why don't you try asking again, without shouting it at us?"

Naruto slowly nodded, surprisingly calm as he looked over the menu. "Uh…what do you guys like? I mean, do you know what's good to get here?"

Sasuke, surprisingly, spoke first. "I'm a fan of the grilled tomatoes for an appetizer, then getting something like yakitori."

Sakura filed that information away for later use. "I like the tempura they have here myself. The dumplings aren't my favorite, so I don't usually get them."

"I like getting the teriyaki since it ends up filling you rather than just being a surface kinda food."

All three of them jumped slightly at the new voice, all turning as they saw that they had company. Standing at the end of their table, was Team 10; the new Ino-Shika-Cho combo, aka their former classmates, aka Ino, Shikamaru, and Choji.

Choji, the one who voiced his opinion, had a sagely look on his face as he nodded slowly. "Yes, the teriyaki they have here is quite filling, and ends up being really quite good no matter how many times I've had it."

"You also tend to _only_ get it when we come here Choji." Shikamaru muttered, though there was a hint of humor to what he said.

Ino, ignoring her teammates, was struggling with her own inner turmoil. Every inch of her fan girl nature was telling her to jump on Sasuke and make Sakura as jealous as possible. However, with Sakura between the two, as well as the copious amounts of glitter on all three of them, her gossip nature took some precedence. "Hey there Sasuke-kun!" Some precedence. "What happened to you three? You look like you got hit by a glitter bomb. Did we miss something?"

Sasuke and Sakura glared at their blond teammate, who looked away and muttered something under his breath. From what she could hear, it had something to do with Konohamaru. This caused her to raise an eyebrow at this. The Hokage's grandson was in on this? Now she just _had_ to know what was going on! Her curiosity needed to be satisfied!

"Okay, scotch over Naruto, I need to hear _all _about this." Ino said, shoving Naruto into a corner of the bench. He squawked indignantly at the treatment, but she ignored it as she slid next to him to stare at Sasuke. "So, details!"

Sasuke, not wanting to be directly across from a fan girl, while being next to his teammate who also happened to be a fangirl, scooted over to make more room on the bench as he glanced to her teammates. "Well, there's enough room if you two want to join us too you know." Never let it be said Sasuke wasn't all for dragging others down with him should the opportunity arise. "Besides, I don't think Ino is going to be leaving us anytime soon…unless you two have better things to do with your time?"

Already knowing what Sasuke was doing, but really not having any kind of excuse he wanted to make at the moment, Shikamaru sighed. "Troublesome." He muttered, sitting next to Sakura so that at the very least he wouldn't have to have Ino messing with him at all. Choji, one to follow Shikamaru's example if only because he had little else to do with his time as well, sat next to Ino. The girl was surprisingly fine with this, seeing how the short Naruto took up little space, which allowed all three of them to sit rather comfortably rather than be all pressed together.

"…um." All six of them glanced to the voice, blinking as they saw their waitress looking between them with a confused look. "I thought it was just one team of shinobi? Did Hiro mess up my table again?"

Ino politely smiled at her. "No he didn't, we just happened to be passing by, and decided to pop in on some old friends. I'm sorry if we threw off your numbers. If you'd like, we can move…"

The waitress, realizing just who the three were now that she got a good look at them, quickly waved off her suggestion. "No, no that's fine. It happens more often than you'd think with all the chunin and jonin that frequent this place. I just haven't had it happen quite as often with genin teams. They usually tend to be more competitive about their time, which means they don't normally…well, eat together. Or do much of anything together honestly."

Each of them at the table raised an eyebrow at that. It was almost funny how right that was as they slowly thought about it. All of them had trained together, played together, and in many ways been tortured – taught if you asked Iruka – and yet after all that they hadn't bothered to keep in touch at all. It was rather humbling to realize that they had drifted further apart then they'd realized within the last couple of months now that they were officially genin.

"Y-yeah well, it was a spur of the moment thing." Ino replied dismissively. "We'll just borrow their menu's when their done and order together, so…could we have another couple minutes?"

"Of course Yamanaka-san. Please, take your time." The waitress said with a small bow before she scurried off to one of her other tables.

Choji, sitting back as he glanced at them all as one of the only two who wasn't really taken aback by what the waitress had said, was the first to speak. "So~ what have you all been doing since the Academy? Got any neat missions done lately?"

Naruto, the other person not as affected, chuckled as he replied. "Yeah, we've done some really neat stuff lately! Plus, we're starting to – ow! What was that for?" Naruto shouted, glaring across the table at Sasuke. Getting another kick, Naruto flinched as he realized that it was Sakura who was kicking him under the table. Grumbling, he sat back and crossed his arms with a pout.

Ino, feeling the slight disturbance under the table, raised an eyebrow at this. With a small smirk, she glanced at Sakura. "Aw, so you've finally got him wrapped around your finger? That's so cute of you. I bet Sasuke's more than happy that you're a couple now."

Sakura glared at Ino while Naruto blinked and glanced around looking _very_ confused. "It's not like _that_ Ino. Naruto don't know when he's being dumb, and Sasuke is too remind him sometimes." Eyebrow twitching, she subtly leaned closer to Sasuke, subtle flames growing around her as she spoke. "Besides, I have other things planned for the future."

Ino glared back at Sakura, feeling her own 'fan girl flames' grow as she leaned over the table with a sudden overly sweet smile. "Oh I'm sure, but as Shikamaru can tell you, no plan survives contact with the competition. Isn't that right Shika?"

"It's survives contact with the enemy Ino." Shikamaru replied lazily, ignoring the sideways glare he got for that. "And don't involve me in this. My hands are clean from this silliness, alright?"

Naruto, picking up on what he understood, slowly glanced between the two. "…wait, you two are enemies? Since when? Why wasn't I told about this." Naruto glanced to Sasuke. "Did you know about this?"

"Hn." Sasuke muttered, already his mind gone from table to preserve his sanity. Being in a room with the two of them was bad enough, but a booth where they had him boxed in was more than even he wanted to deal with. Maybe if he switched spots with Shikamaru he'd have a better chance of getting away…but then, he'd have to deal with them running after him. From what he'd seen from some of his stalkers, that might actually make things worse as long as the two of them were fighting.

"Don't talk to Sasuke-kun like that Naruto!" Ino hissed, the 'flames' almost seeming snake-like as she turned her glare onto Naruto.

Naruto blinked, unsure of what to make of this. Remembering Aku, he found himself talking before his mouth and mind had finished thinking through his spontaneous idea. "Yeah, not scary enough. Good effort though."

This caused everyone to blink, which made both Ino's and Sakura's 'flames' disperse as they stared at him. While far from the killing intent, a girl's 'fan girl flames' were often referred to as similarly potent, and could bring a lesser man to his knees. The fact that Naruto had simply brushed it off and then said that it was a 'good effort' had all of them stunned.

Feeling all the eyes on him, Naruto glanced at them with child-like innocence. "What?"

Ino, the most shocked by what Naruto had replied with, slowly poked Naruto. "Come again?"

"I said you're not scary enough." Naruto said, as though it were obvious. Clearly unaware of the confused looks Team 10 were giving him, he shrugged. "Besides, you don't even have anything creepy looking about you. I mean, throw some bandages on your face, or have a scarier smile and it might work. Oh! Maybe you should try looking like a zombie." A pause and a shiver. "Actually don't do that, that would be terrifying. Ghosts and zombies are like, distant cousins, so…yeah don't do that."

Being a girl, and having that childish vanity any other near thirteen year old might have, Ino slowly came to a conclusion that even Naruto wouldn't have come to. "Are…are you hitting on me?"

"What?!" Sakura shouted, head darting between the two. Quickly, it ended on Naruto with a scowl. "Naruto, how could you! This is not the time or place to be hitting on Ino-pig of all people!"

"Says Forehead over here." Ino said with a smirk.

Glaring across the table at each other, neither noticed Naruto pick up his menu and hum. "Yeah, I'd like the teriyaki chicken please. Choji made it sound good, so why not?"

Both girls slowly turned their heads to the head of the table, the waitress back and looking at them completely unperturbed by their looks. "And what would you ladies like to order?"

Realizing that they were the last ones to order, they had the decency to shrink back and look somewhat ashamed of themselves for having missed her arrival. "Tempura please." Both of them said simultaneously. "Hey, don't order what I ordered! I ordered it first! Why you –"

"Troublesome women." Shikamaru said with a sigh, digging his pinky into his ear. He clearly needed to reevaluate his seating position seeing how Sakura was much louder then he'd remembered her being in the Academy.

Sasuke was still off in his own little world, most likely where he was plotting various ways to train later that evening, so he wasn't paying attention after he'd ordered. Glancing across the table, he slowly brought himself back as he thought of something. "Hey dobe."

Naruto blinked, turning to Sasuke with a raised eyebrow. Sasuke rarely, if ever _started_ a conversation, so he was curious as to what he had in mind. "Eh? Yeah teme, what's up?"

Ignoring the two girls shouts of indignation at Naruto's way of referring to their 'dear Sasuke-kun', he posed the question that had come to his mind. "What are you planning on working on later? Training I mean."

Sakura's rivalry suddenly hit the backburner as she too realized what Sasuke was referencing. Unlike herself and Naruto, Sasuke had several techniques he could practice and learn on his own. Having a clan with a few leftover techniques was a boon at times. Sakura herself was more than capable of going into a shinobi bookstore and learning from scrolls herself as well, seeing how genin level jutsu weren't offlimits, and there were some that occasionally were useful. Naruto on the other hand, didn't generally have the patience for scrolls, which meant that anything he was learning was better done hands on. And he didn't have anyone to help him with anything like that.

Not that they knew of at least.

Oblivious and completely missing the semi-worry in Sasuke's question, Naruto just chuckled and scratched his cheek. "Actually, I have to meet with someone later. I…met them, a bit ago, and…convinced one of them to train me." Naruto, ignorant as he normally was, still held onto his thoughts from two days previous about keeping his contract secret for now. He'd reveal it when he'd learned enough stuff that he could show to his teammates, but not until then. On that note, "Oh, and if I show up looking like I got attacked by a…giant dragon…don't worry, that's normal."

Everyone at the table stared at Naruto for a moment, his strange addition confusing them. After a moment though, they shrugged it off. Whatever Naruto was learning was his prerogative, and if whoever had an interest in him threw something like a giant dragon at him, who were they to judge? Had they the skill, Sakura and Ino likely would've done the same after a couple of Naruto's comments.

Seeing how Naruto had someone who was instructing him, Sasuke's gaze slowly was cast downwards as he took a moment to think about that. _"Someone's taken an interest in Naruto? Why? He said them, so it's more than one person, but why's only one been convinced to train him? Are they strong? If Naruto's not joking, they sound strong but…" _Sasuke grumbled, pinching the bridge of his nose gently as he tried to clear his head. The enigma of Naruto was not something one could delve into lightly, and he needed more time to process everything.

"Sasuke-kun? Are you alright?"

"Hands off him Forehead! Come on Sasuke, you know you can tell me anything."

"Back off Ino-pig!"

The two fan girls weren't helping him keep a clear head about the matter either.

Shikamaru was having similar thoughts, but had dismissed them almost as quickly as being 'to troublesome' to deal with right now. If someone was teaching Naruto, that was fine by him. He'd definitely be keeping an eye on him for future reference though, just to make sure that he didn't catch him off guard with something out of the blue.

As their food arrived, they all dropped their aggression and odd tendencies as they graciously broke their chopsticks and muttered a quiet "Itadakimasu." The only new difference was that, upon tasting the food, and mulling it over, both Naruto and Choji had simultaneously began digging into their meal. Like a silent challenge, they looked as though they were attempting to out eat each other almost instantaneously. For the other members of their team, they all silently agreed that if nothing else, it was good that some things never truly changed.

* * *

Off in the corner, Shin and Sai sat at the table and enjoyed a meal of their own, casually glancing at the two teams eating together. Far more reserved in their eating habits, Shin decided to go over a few things with Sai as they ate. "So, which one do you think is cuter, the blond or the pink one?"

Sai silently glared at Shin, poking at his food as he sighed. "Shin, we aren't here to gawk at the kunochi, we're here on assignment, remember?"

"I'm sorry, but _he_ needs us to be aware of the shinobi they are connecting with. Knowing which ones are pretty and which ones aren't is a step towards knowing who else we should…encourage them to meet with." Shin said, trying his hardest to wrap their mission and his current topic together.

He would get Sai to follow in his footsteps damn it! Sure Danzo had made it clear that he wanted them to be emotionless, but even Danzo knew he couldn't break everyone. It was why he'd added the seals to the back of their tongues; torture was possible, but to prevent them from speaking of even other Konoha shinobi seemed a bit much to Shin. Thus, he'd given up on _completely_ blocking out his emotions, and instead kept them close enough that he could call on them as needed. They kept him inspired, curious, and sharp in many situations. It also left him with a continual appreciation for the female form.

Which led him to Sai. Unlike himself, Sai was young, and didn't understand all the things he had figured out. Try as he might to help him learn and understand, Sai had been through enough emotional suppression training to be a bit harder to get him to call his wayward emotions back up. If there was one thing he'd learned from Danzo though, it was that there was more than one way to get a job done.

"…I cannot see the blond one clearly, as she is being blocked by her large teammate." Sai said after a moment, shaking his head. "And after what we have observed, neither one is very pretty. The pink ones overly large forehead makes me wonder why she wears her headband to make it stand out, while the blond tries too hard to show off her skin. To be honest, neither are 'cute' as you would say.

"Worse still, we have yet to see their skills in fighting, which would prove to show more about who they are. If they had combat prowess, I could stand to understand why either of them could be useful." Sai shrugged. "As it stands, I don't see anything redeeming about them."

Shin sighed, poking at his food. "You'll get it one day Sai. Anything about the others then?"

"…neither of the boys have anything I can really say about them." Sai said after a moment, frowning as he thought over what he knew. "They are from high clans like the blond girl, but I see little besides that. And with the way the pineapple haired one avoids his teammate, I wonder if he has the dick to even be near her."

Sai ignored the sound of Shin near choking on his food. When he'd calmed down, Shin slowly cleared his throat and stared at Sai. "…Sai, the term is 'he doesn't have the balls', which has nothing to do with having a…well having a dick."

Sai blinked. "Really? I always assumed –"

"We are _not_ having this conversation here." Shin said, vehemently suppressing his flustered state as he attempted to keep a level head in regards to this. It was one of the things Sai had caught on that made him flustered, and at times he slipped it in to throw him off. Damn him and his ability to just brush things off.

Sai nodded, glancing back at the two teams. After staring for a moment, a look of deep thought crossed his face. Slowly turning back to Shin, he asked his question with a deliberately slow, and curious tone. "…their waitress…_is_ rather nice looking. Would she be considered cute, Shin-senpai?"

Shin blinked, glancing at the waitress. Mulling it over, he nodded. "Yes, cute would be a good word. She's not quite 'hot', but definitely 'cute'." Pausing, Shin glanced back at Sai with a grin. "I'd go ahead and start sketching before she moves too much. Might be your best opportunity."

Sai's eyes widened as he nodded, quickly pulling out his art book and began scribbling in it. With only occasional glances, he worked on, diligently working to get over his weakness at drawing the female form.

All the while, Shin inwardly smile. _"Yes Sai, continue making me proud. Soon, you will join me in 'observing' all the 'finer things' in this village."_

"Shin-senpai, please stop chuckling like that. People are starting to stare…"

* * *

As the sun began to inch closer to setting for the day, Naruto finally managed to get away from his team and Team 10. He'd had a lot of fun with them, even if he'd lost his 'match' against Choji, and was looking forward to trying to meet with them again. The waitress had made a good point, and they were all more eager to see what they could do together now that they were genin.

Normally they'd blame their sensei for being irresponsible for not telling them about this beforehand, but then they _were_ considered adults now. It's not their sensei's job to hold their hand anymore then a parent holds their child's hand after they've moved out and on with their life. It helped that Ino, Choji, and Shikamaru already knew this, though it _did_ put a bit of a damper on Team 7's mood since they had _just_ realized this.

Whistling softly, Naruto all but skipped as he made his way back to his house. Since he was just going to return to the summoning realm, he didn't need to go to a training ground like Sasuke or Sakura might. In fact, of everyone he knew, his training was likely going to be the most secretive since _no one_ would be able to spy on him as he'd be in another realm altogether. This led to Naruto fantasizing about all the cool jutsu he'd be pulling out in the future, impressing the Hokage to the point he just gave Naruto his hat and let him be Hokage in his place.

Oh to be young and ignorant of what was coming.

Giggling at the thought, he raced home and quickly prepared himself. Biting his finger, he went through the hand seals and slapped them on his chest. "Gyaku Kuchiyose no Jutsu (Reverse Summoning Technique)!"

With a puff of smoke, his world shifted. Gone was the safety of his room, and in their place was the plateau of the mountain he'd been on when he'd first arrived in the realm previously. Taking a deep breath of the air around him, he grinned as he looked for the other dragons.

"**Good to see you've returned Naruto."**

Naruto turned around completely to face Shinryuu, scratching the back of his head as he chuckled softly. "Well of course I came back! No one can hold back the amazing Uzumaki Naruto when he's got something he's gonna do!" Naruto rubbed his hands together, slowly looking around. "So, where's Aku-sensei? I'm ready to get some real shinobi training in."

Shinryuu raised an eyebrow at Naruto's attitude. Realizing that Naruto had no idea of what was coming, he glanced in the air as he pondered what to do. It had been a hundred years since he'd last been awake, so the amount of entertainment was low during that time. Should he warn the boy, or let the entertainment unfold? Decisions, decisions.

Naruto, far more impatient, stared at Shinryuu while waving his hands to get his attention. "Oi! Hello, anyone there? Hey, hey where's Aku-sensei? Hello?"

…wait for the fireworks it was then.

"**Don't worry, Aku will be here…soon."** Shinryuu said, noting the quickly approaching black dot in the sky behind Naruto.

"Oh good." Naruto said, grinning widely. Hands linked behind his head, he rocked on his heels as he tried to keep from bouncing too much. Pausing in mid bounce, a thought came to Naruto's mind. "Hey, Shinryuu-san?"

"**Hm? What is it Naruto-san?"**

"What kind of training will Aku-sensei be giving me anyways?"

Blinking, and suddenly remembering that Naruto was in fact that he was a hatching – or as humans called them a child, Shinryuu sighed softly. **"…self-preservation."**

"…what?"

"**You have five seconds. My advice, run."**

Naruto suddenly looked a bit nervous, scratching his cheek as he chuckled nervously. "Shinryuu-san, what are you talking about? What do you mean 'self-preservation'? And why are you telling me to –"

The impact of something large behind Naruto got him to jump in mid-sentence. Before he could turn around, he felt a blast of hot are roll over his shoulders which made him wince as he realized just how _close_ that 'something' was to him. Slowly turning to look behind himself, he locked eyes with Aku as the dragon stared down at him. Slowly, Aku's lips drew back to reveal very sharp sword-like fangs that were mere inches from him.

"…you heard him, run chew toy, run!"

Not needing any more push to do so, Naruto scrambled away from the large dragons as he raced down the plateau. As Aku reared back to give chase, Shinryuu raised himself slightly above Aku to make his presence known. **"He is a hatchling Aku. Keep that in mind, that you do not maim him before we can begin further training."**

"…yeah. Sure. No permanent damage." Aku muttered, ignoring Shinryuu for the most part before diving down after Naruto.

A second later, Shinryuu felt two more presences land beside him. **"So, you managed to make it to watch the fireworks then?"**

"Naruto verse Aku? He'll end up melted before it's over after what he said." Haru said, his tone even, but a small hint of worry on his face. "Of all the dragons to be taught by, why'd he have to pick Aku first?"

"**Likely it has something to do with the fact he is a hatchling, and Aku made it sound as though he would be learning dangerous and flashy techniques."** Shinryuu muttered, feeling the two gazing at him.

"Wait, you mean he's not even molted yet?" Raiu asked inquisitively, head tilted in confusion. "Well…that can't be right. The family only let summoners who were…what was it called again?"

"Chunin?"

"Yeah, right, that. They only let people who were that level sign our scroll so that they would learn our stuff faster."

Shinryuu sighed, knowing that the absence was showing now with their clear confusion. **"Be that as it may…Naruto is barely any wiser then Musshu at this point."**

"Oi, I can be wise!" Musshu shouted from Haru's hair, poking his head out. When he received a skeptical look, he slowly slunk back in and glanced away in an abashed manner. "I just don't choose to show it all the time. You know there is such a thing as being to wise. I think."

Haru ignored Musshu, watching the chase between Aku and Naruto with a keen eye. "…there is much that can be said about him from this alone. His dodging is pathetic, his speed is raw, and in all honesty, Aku could have eaten him from the start if it weren't for the fact Naruto is expecting training. He didn't even sense Aku before he had no chance but to run away."

"**He's young."**

"He's inexperienced." Raiu added helpfully.

"He is gonna get himself killed in a real fight like this." Musshu muttered, watching the screaming streak of orange flail to the side as Aku lunged for him.

Haru slowly glanced at his fellow dragons, each returning the look before three of them grinned. "Challenge accepted."

Musshu, the only one not getting what was going on, hopped off of Haru's head and waved his hands in the air to get their attention. "Hold on you guys. Can someone _please_ back up and explain what ya'll are talking about?"

"He's practically a fresh student." Haru replied, watching Naruto scream as he barely leapt over Aku's jaws before he ran down Aku's back in an attempt to flee. "With little to no outside training to help him improve, we've been given a rather rare opportunity to cultivate a dragon summoner who is more than just a shinobi. He will become a shinobi who's entire arsenal is based around the techniques we will teach him."

"You are pathetic brat!" Aku rumbled with a deep laugh as Naruto ran up a mountainside to get above the pursuing dragon. "Clearly I should just end this and be done with this. You have no skills worth my time."

"YOU'LL REGRET UNDERESTIMATING ME!" Naruto shouted, now above Aku. Launching himself into the air, his hands moved to form an odd cross-like hand seal. "TAJUU KAGE BUNSHIN NO JUTSU (Mass Shadow Clone Technique)!"

All dragon's jaws hit the floor as Naruto suddenly exploded in a cloud of smoke that then revealed a small army of orange that began raining down on Aku. While Aku was more than capable of handling an army such as this, the surprise factor and the way they all rained down was enough to momentarily overwhelm Aku and allow them to land on Aku as they attempted to beat the dragon up…with their fists.

"…can we keep him? Please~?" Raiu pleaded, eyes sparkling at the sight of the massive clone technique.

"That jutsu…produces solid clones. That means his chakra has to be…" Haru muttered, grinning at the sight. "Oh yes, he _is _going to be the perfect student."

"**You want to call first bite?"** Shinryuu inquired, he himself wondering what all he could add to the boy's arsenal.

"Hm, well –"

"Dibs! I call dibs, totally calling it!" Raiu shouted, giggling as Haru jumped a bit. When they gave Raiu looks of annoyance, all they received in return was a roll of the eyes. "Oh come _on_, he's totally got the stamina to keep up with my stuff, and if he's a hatchling, then my games won't seem so silly!"

"…"

"…"

"…you know she has a point." Musshu said helpfully. Raiu was known for being more childish then even most hatchlings at times, but no dragon could doubt that the method behind the madness was there, and it worked. Most of the time at least, and only when they didn't involve any kind of lightning. Being something of a living generator made trying to 'tone back' lightning a bit hard to do, which often made parts of mountains disappear.

"…how about we cycle days? That way we can all teach him something." Haru slowly proposed, remembering that Aku technically had dibs at the moment, seeing how their summoner had basically requested the training. "It'll…also allow us to give Naruto-san a chance to recover between Aku's…training."

"HOLY CRAP WHAT WAS THAT?!"

"Oh be quiet and be proud of yourself, I didn't hit you yet."

"YOU MELTED THE ROCKS WHERE I WAS STANDING, HOW DID YOU DO THAT?!"

"…for his…and our sanity's sake."

Down below them, Naruto was not entirely sure what to make of this 'training'. Clearly Shinryuu had been serious when he'd said the training was in self-preservation; having a large black dragon chasing you down with every intention of eating you at a seconds notice would kick a lot of one's fight-or-flight responses into high gear. Unfortunately, he was also pretty sure that Aku was toying with him, seeing how many times he'd thought he'd gotten away only to have his cover ripped away.

The tide had turned for a moment when he'd used his signature technique, but that quickly fell apart once Aku got back into gear and tore through them. Naruto was very glad he'd picked a spot higher up, seeing how many of his clones had been rammed into walls, flicked off the tail, and then others burst into…nothing, when Aku began breathing yellow 'fire' at them. Even Naruto was skeptical about that, since he was pretty sure that rocks don't make a hissing noise when fire hits them.

Which lead to Naruto's clear _lack_ of self-preservation being evident. Instead of running more, or trying to hide, he was standing a short ways from the melted rock and looking at it curiously. The hissing had died down, but Naruto was still in awe of what Aku's 'fire' had done to it. He'd heard about dragons being able to breathe fire, but this was something new altogether.

"That…was so cool!" Naruto suddenly shouted, whirling around to Aku with something of a twinkle in his eyes. "Is that something I'll be able to do?"

Aku was beginning to get whiplash from Naruto's sudden mood swings. They'd all heard human hatchings could be volatile, but this was to the point of being ridiculously chaotic. One minute he was running, the next he was in a fighting mode, then scared and confused, and finally he was all giddy and excited. It was crazy, ridiculous to put it bluntly.

Aku was going to have_ so_ much fun with him.

"Hm, maybe if you're good." Aku replied with a small smirk. Naruto had no idea how much ego he was rubbing with his joy. After years of silence, hearing someone impressed by Aku's signature technique, and going as far as to be eager to _learn_ said technique, it would do that for anyone's ego. "So far though, you've impressed me only once. Those clones…were not something I expected of you. However, once is more then I was expecting, so I suppose I won't eat you today chew toy. And since you've…entertained me, I suppose I should teach you something a bit more practical than simply running."

Naruto, catching the hint that he was going to learn something, leapt into the air and let out a loud whoop of excitement. He was going to learn something awesome! Imagination running wild, he could see all kinds of possibilities; breathing fire as Sakura fawned over him, flying through the air and laughing as all his former classmates gawked, and even becoming a large dragon himself and roaring as enemies screamed in terror before attempting to flee from his wrath. He was bouncing at least a foot in the air in excitement, before he realized that something…weird was going on.

Aku's eyes were closed, clearly concentrating on something. Before Naruto could ask what was going on, he heard something rumbling from deep in Aku's chest. Slowly, Aku's underbelly began to glow with a light that Naruto vaguely recognized as chakra. The chakra slowly spread through Aku's body, illuminating each scale as it was enveloped in chakra. Then, with a loud crack, the scales began to move.

Pulling forward, one onto the next, Aku's entire body appeared to be wrapping itself like cloth over itself, shrinking and forming itself into something Naruto couldn't recognize. Quickly becoming all but a tornado of chakra, Aku's scales and form began to take a more definite shape. And once Naruto began to recognize the shape, his jaw loosened as it began to drop rather quickly to the ground.

Before him was now a human-sized…person. Decked out in a sleeveless, all-black kimono, the figure slowly stood, swaying from side to side in doing so. Long, jet black hair was tied in a topknot/ponytail, thought which Naruto wasn't sure of, with two green 'chopsticks' slipped through the knot which looked like Aku's horns. The person's face was a pale green – almost indistinguishable from regular pale skin unless the sun hit it right, with piercing red eyes, and red flame-like markings spread around them similar to how Aku's scales looked normally. Finally, to top off everything –as well as to make Naruto further gawk – the kimono was rather loose, which meant that the swaying motion from standing meant that Naruto got an interesting view of her very womanly assets moving back and forth.

Aku, now in her human form, smirked as Naruto's eyes continued to look her over. Snapping her fingers in front of his face, she grinned as his eyes shot back to her face. "Well then gaki, if you're done gawking, we have work to do."

* * *

AN: Mwahahahahaha!

Maniacal laughter out of the way, here's a few things I wanted to quickly address.

First, Sakura's thoughts on Naruto's aim. This is actually me stepping into her shoes to make sure she _didn't_ get that right. Oh sure, Naruto will need work, but she's only focusing on one thrown method. In the manga/anime, Naruto showed himself to be rather proficient in throwing _shuriken_, but not often with kunai. Think about it; Naruto almost hit Kakashi with two of them, and even if he had moved the fact that they were on target says something about how much he's practiced at that. He's even _shown_ trying to emulate Sasuke's trick with them too, so this is a fact we've seen. That being said, _kunai_ training, will have to be addressed. And by addressed, I mean I will have fun with sharp and pointy objects.

Second, the sensei's. A lot of people do the whole "sensei's get together", and while I like that I wanted something a bit different. That lead me to remember what Kakashi told Iruka; "They aren't you students anymore, they're my soldiers." Seeing how little he's trained them, I figured he wasn't entering them at the time so that they could pass, but so that they could learn "in the field" that they needed to work together so they could actually have a shot. As proven though, that team doesn't really care much for what others see as "normal". As such, I decided to do this my way; by throwing a few scenes in where I could get them to grow more. Character building is fun!

Also…people need to write more Shin and Sai. They are SO much fun. That scene practically wrote itself.

And finally…okay, how many people _didn't_ see something like the dragons-becoming-people coming? Let me know, and if you didn't see it, I'll explain next chapter.

Until then, Guru out!


End file.
